[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 61 (Wednesday, April 6, 2022)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E365]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   RESILIENT ASSISTANCE FOR MITIGATION FOR ENVIRONMENTALLY RESILIENT 
            INFRASTRUCTURE AND CONSTRUCTION BY AMERICANS ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, April 5, 2022

  MS. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 5689, 
the Resilient Assistance for Mitigation for Environmentally Resilient 
Infrastructure and Construction by Americans Act or the Resilient 
AMERICA Act.
  This bill bolsters U.S. disaster resilience and expands resources and 
strategies for hazard mitigation by state, local, tribal, territorial 
governments, and some nonprofit organizations.
  The bill permits the redistribution of hazard mitigation funds that 
are unclaimed or unobligated for use in addressing a future major 
disaster.
  The legislation also increases from 6 percent to 15 percent the 
estimated aggregate amount of grants made for national public 
infrastructure pre-disaster mitigation assistance so that we're better 
prepared to respond to disasters.
  It also makes private nonprofit facilities eligible for technical and 
financial assistance in the implementation of cost-effective pre-
disaster hazard mitigation measures.
  The overall effect would be to expand the use of hazard mitigation 
assistance to cover certain activities pertaining to wildfires, 
tsunamis, and ice storms.
  Additionally, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) must set 
aside 10 percent of the funds annually to update relevant building 
codes on which consensus has been reached.
  FEMA must also carry out a pilot program through which states and 
localities award grants to individuals for retrofitting their 
residences with appropriate hazard mitigation measures.
  This legislation will build on the resilience initiatives contained 
in the recent bipartisan infrastructure law and provide additional 
tools to reduce risks posed by the changing climate.
  For every dollar invested in resilience and predisaster mitigation, 
the taxpayer receives anywhere from $3.00 to $11.00 in return.
  The Resilient AMERICA Act returns unspent funds from the Hazard 
Mitigation Grant Program to the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF), which 
ensures that these expiring and unspent funds will still help our 
communities prepare for and respond to disasters.
  This bill doubles the funding stream dedicated to FEMA's Pre-Disaster 
Mitigation program and extends eligibility for Pre-Disaster Mitigation 
(PDM) to include private nonprofits (PNPs), which ultimately will 
reduce the impact and damage from a disaster.
  It also expands the reach of the post-disaster Hazard Mitigation 
Grant Program (HMGP) to prevent utility outages in the face of extreme 
wildfire, wind, tsunami, and ice events.
  It additionally funds residential resilience retrofit block grants to 
states, tribes, and territories to strengthen homes for maximum 
protection and safety.
  It is clear that climate change is making extreme weather more 
intense and severe.
  The snow and ice that unleashed a cascading effect of power and water 
outages in Texas and surrounding states was caused by a series of rare 
winter storms in 2021 and 2022.
  My constituents were without potable water weeks after the storm, a 
lot of this damage was a direct consequence of a decades-long failure 
to maintain and upgrade our essential infrastructure.
  We cannot leave our constituents living in mold-ridden homes, in the 
freezing cold, awaiting implementation of better, large-scale 
infrastructure.
  We need our federal agencies and state governments to be proactive, 
anticipating potential infrastructure failures and working quickly to 
resolve them before Americans pay the price of our aged infrastructure.
  This will reduce risk, save costs and encourage long-term planning 
and proactivity, rather than on-the-fly response to the impending 
challenges to our infrastructure.
  Storms are inevitable, but they don't need to become life, 
threatening disasters.
  I ask my colleagues to join me in voting for H.R. 5689 because we all 
deserve better protection from the things we know are coming.

                          ____________________