[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 90 (Wednesday, May 24, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S3148]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. KAINE:
  S. 1224. A bill to authorize the Secretary of Housing and Urban 
Development to carry out a Community Resilience Grant Program, and for 
other purposes; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban 
Affairs.
  Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, today I am introducing legislation to 
authorize a game-changing scale of investment in making America's 
infrastructure more resilient to natural disasters.
  The BUILD Resilience Act would build on the National Disaster 
Resilience Competition first authorized in the 2013 Hurricane Sandy 
emergency supplemental disaster package. It would authorize $1 billion 
a year over 5 years to jumpstart large-scale investment in community 
resilience--supporting jobs, strengthening infrastructure, and reducing 
risk to communities from disasters like hurricanes and flooding.
  This bill aims to follow the ``ounce of prevention'' principle. 
Cleaning up after a disaster is important, but if we invest in sturdier 
infrastructure before the disaster, there will be less to clean up 
after the disaster. This is borne out in two separate studies. The 
Congressional Budget Office estimates that every $1 invested upfront in 
resilient infrastructure saves $3 on the back end. The Multihazard 
Mitigation Council of the National Institute of Building Sciences 
estimates $4 of benefit.
  The Sandy Competition supported resilience projects in low-lying 
coastal areas of Virginia and Louisiana; in Sandy-affected areas of New 
York and New Jersey, in flood-prone Midwest regions like Iowa and North 
Dakota, and elsewhere. But Virginia's grant illustrates the scale of 
the challenge. This grant is supporting innovative flood-control 
projects but only in two at-risk neighborhoods of Norfolk, which is 
only one part of a broader Hampton Roads region. Neighboring localities 
like Newport News and Chesapeake submitted proposals to address their 
own infrastructure needs, but funding was insufficient. Since there 
will always be risk of another devastating storm, we must learn from 
Sandy and take steps now to protect our communities later. This bill 
tries to do that.
  With a range from 1\1/2\ to 7 feet of sea level rise projected by the 
year 2100, the Hampton Roads region is the second largest population 
center at risk from sea level rise in the Nation, behind only New 
Orleans. Residents are dealing with skyrocketing flood insurance 
premiums and flooding not only after a Sandy or a Matthew but from 
ordinary rainstorms. This is a direct Federal responsibility given the 
presence of the largest concentration of naval power in the world. An 
ODU study estimates that the main Norfolk city road leading into Naval 
Station Norfolk could be inundated by the tides a few hours per day by 
midcentury. That makes this not only an infrastructure issue but a 
national security issue.
  I hope to work with the White House and Congress to advance a 
comprehensive infrastructure package that rises to this challenge.

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