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.