Preventing Our Next Natural Disaster Act
Latest action. Referred to the subcommitteeA smaller panel inside a standing committee with jurisdiction over a slice of its subject matter. Most hearings and the first markup usually happen here.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management.
Preventing Our Next Natural Disaster Act
This bill modifies the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant program of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Specifically, the bill
increases the amount that may be set aside from FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund for BRIC from 6% to 15% of certain disaster grant amounts;
authorizes FEMA to set aside 2% from the BRIC 15% set-aside for assistance with community planning and capacity building;
provides a 90% federal cost share for BRIC grants to environmental justice communities, and increases the maximum number of people in small impoverished communities, which are also eligible for the 90% BRIC federal cost share; and
authorizes FEMA to develop guidance regarding how to incorporate climate change into the National Risk Index, benefit-cost analyses, and improved codes, specifications, and standards to address natural hazards.
FEMA must
prioritize BRIC assistance for high hazard risk communities, environmental justice communities, communities with low tax revenue base per capita, and communities with a low rate of code adoption and enforcement and infrastructure maintenance expenditures;
provide community outreach on project planning and grant administration; and
establish a central federal database to consolidate funding data collected by all local, state, and federal agencies involved in post-disaster response and pre-disaster mitigation spending and categorize the data by type of project, funding source, and hazard types using a user-friendly database and interactive map.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in House" stage on January 14, 2025. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on January 15, 2025: Referred to the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 118th Congress (2023-24), 274 of the 16,565 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 1.7 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Eric Swalwell (D-CA) introduced it on January 14, 2025, and 6 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They are 6 Democrats.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on January 14, 2025, 604 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 603 days ago, on January 15, 2025.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 119th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2027 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers