# Climate Resilient Communities Act: Plain Language Summary

This bill asks the federal government to study how well we're protecting buildings and infrastructure from climate disasters, and to figure out if stronger building standards could save money and lives. Right now, when FEMA helps communities recover from floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and other climate-related disasters, they use various building codes and standards—but there's no clear picture of whether these standards are actually making communities safer or if they could be improved. This bill directs the Government Accountability Office (basically Congress's independent auditor) to investigate this question and report back to Congress within a year, then every five years after that.

The report will look at three main things. First, it will check which states, territories, and tribal nations have adopted modern building codes that protect against climate risks like flooding, wildfires, hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, and rising sea levels. Second, it will calculate the real financial benefits of using stronger building standards—how much money and how many lives could be saved by building homes, roads, and bridges to withstand these disasters instead of rebuilding them after they're damaged. Third, it will examine what FEMA is currently doing with building codes and standards in its grants and recovery programs, and recommend ways FEMA could do better.

The practical impact is that this bill doesn't immediately change anything—it's a fact-finding mission. But the information it gathers could eventually lead to FEMA requiring stronger building standards when it funds reconstruction after disasters, which could mean safer communities but potentially higher upfront construction costs. For homeowners and communities in disaster-prone areas, this could eventually mean better protection if the recommendations are adopted, though it might also mean stricter building requirements and potentially higher costs for new construction or repairs.

Climate Resilient Communities Act

Rep. Neguse, Joe [D-CO-2]

Climate Resilient Communities Act This bill directs the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to evaluate and issue a report on the structural and economic impacts of climate resiliency at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Specifically, GAO, within one year of this bill's enactment and every five years thereafter, must evaluate and report to Congress on the economic benefits, including avoided impacts on property and life, of the use of model, consensus-based building codes, standards, and provisions that support resilience to climate risks and impacts. The report shall include <ul> <li>an assessment of the status of adoption of building codes, standards, and provisions within the states, territories, and tribes at the state or jurisdictional level;</li> <li>analysis of the extent to which pre-disaster mitigation measures provide benefits to the nation and individual states, territories and tribes;</li> <li> an assessment of the building codes and standards referenced or otherwise currently incorporated into federal policies and programs, and the extent to which such codes and standards contribute to increasing climate resiliency; and</li> <li>recommendations for FEMA on how to better incorporate climate resiliency into efforts to rebuild after natural disasters.</li> </ul>