New Climate Schools report details state policy trends on resilience
Columbia Climate School National Disaster Preparedness Center posted a report of the week Explore resiliency legislation during the 2021-2022 state legislative session.
climate change intensifies, the disaster seasons of the past few years have broken records and cost governments billions of dollars in response and recovery costs.The United States has experienced 14 “billion-dollar disasters” in the past decade, with a total of $788 billion. While the federal government continues to fund resiliency efforts, there is widespread agreement that FEMA alone cannot make survivors financially “whole.” As federal policy leaders prioritize disaster investments, they’re also imploring states to get more involved.
This new report aims to provide a better understanding of state-level legislative activity related to disaster resilience. The goal is to provide additional insights into state-level efforts and regional dynamics, and ultimately a better understanding of strengths and gaps in legislative efforts to build resilience.
Number of bills enacted by state.Source: U.S. Census Bureau
Although the vast majority of states show some level of legislative activity in this area, the number of these bills and disaster subject areas vary from state to state. While 42 states enacted a sizeable 211 bills related to disaster resilience, 18 states passed only one or two bills, and seven states did not. Legislative action in California, Colorado, Hawaii and New Jersey alone accounted for a third of the bills passed.
The report divides the legislation into 12 categories, modeled on FEMA’s community lifeline, and only consider enacted bills. These categories include funding, energy, communications, transportation, safety and security, health and medical, food and water, housing, hazardous materials, land use, governance and equity. Some categories also contain subcategories. Funding includes, for example, subcategories of assistance to individuals and families, assistance to the private and nonprofit sector, assistance to local governments, federally related spending, and cost-sharing insurance.
Number of bill states passed by category.
The results indicate that states enacted a range of resilience solutions through 2022. The most important parts of the enacted bills relate to funding and governance (i.e. emergency management reform), followed by land use, communications and safety and security.
Nearly three-quarters of states have enacted 107 bills appropriating funding for state and local resiliency programs and programs. These acts assist individuals and families, private and not-for-profit sector entities, local government and state government programs, or to leverage federal funding—such as certain types of FEMA funding (or designated state matches), the American Rescue Program Act (ARPA), through The Sustained Risk Mitigation (STORM) Act protects tomorrow—at the state level.
At least 93 bills relate to critical infrastructure, such as improving the resiliency of national highways, energy grids, building codes and emergency communications. At least 88 bills relate to health and human services—protecting a community’s environmental health and access to food, water, and public care despite the risk of harm. There are at least 104 governance-related bills – implementing broad state administrative changes, reforming or creating new government institutions, reporting requirements, intergovernmental coordination and transparency. There are at least 31 equity-related bills — designed to ensure that resilience efforts are equitable among minority, low-income, senior, gender, LGBTQ+, and rural populations.
Funding Acts by Subcategory
Several states are not in session this year or have not officially closed session, and the threat and frequency of disasters faced by the states are also very different, so the quantity of legislative activity may not be directly related to the quality, and the impact of legislation deserves a separate analysis.
As the impacts of climate change are increasingly linked to disasters, monitoring and understanding state-by-state legislative developments will be critical.
Click here to download a copy of the report.
