What climate resilience policies will state legislatures enact in 2023?
After the busy 2021-2022 legislative session, the states will hold their 2023 sessions this month. As of the new year, 32 states had begun preparations for the 2023 legislative session. Of those, nine states — Montana, Texas, South Carolina, Missouri, Washington, Arkansas, Florida, Virginia and Delaware — have pre-filed at least 39 Acts related to disaster resilience.These reflect a range of themes that are both similar and different Key trends for 2021-22. Bills that have been filed ahead of time and pending during the 2021-22 legislative session — especially those that have passed at least one chamber — may give us a glimpse of what states will be considering in 2023.
Unfinished business in 2022
recent Report The Columbia Climate Schools National Center for Disaster Preparedness found in the 2022 legislative session that 42 states enacted at least 211 disaster bills in the previous session. Most of the enacted bills relate to funding and governance (i.e. emergency management reform), followed by land use, communications and security.
However, states considered far more bills than enacted, and 15 of them passed the First House — a significant hurdle. While funding, governance and communications dominate the group of bills, the content varies wildly.For example, Illinois considers SB 18a successful early/contributed version of energy transition law, combines energy grid resilience with emissions reduction measures by investing in resilient electricity transmission and requiring utilities to demonstrate how they are meeting grid resilience/reliability and equity goals.A sort of measure In Massachusetts (early/Contribution to Successful Annual Appropriations Act) would direct some of the remaining federal ARPA funding towards certain climate, flood and thermal resiliency measures – these have been fairly common at the state level in recent years Come COVID Fund. Some bills in New Jersey and North Carolina emphasize workplace and mental health protections and assistance to first responders and disaster volunteers. The success of these and other pending measures could signal reconsideration of them at an upcoming meeting.
Legislative Outlook to 2023
Some bills are already in effect in 2023. The pre-filing process allows legislators and legislators to expedite the administrative process required to introduce/advance a bill (e.g., draft text, collect signatures, committee referrals, and enter committee agendas), providing the best chance for pre-filing of measures for consideration and possible enactment . Of the 39 disaster bills already advanced, governance remains the leading category. So far, this has been driven by several Montana emergency management bills that seek to introduce broad reforms to emergency management in the state (although, importantly, the text of some of their bills is not yet available, so Details to be determined). It was also boosted by bills in Montana, Texas, Washington and South Carolina — nearly half the states have pre-filed disaster bills — that limit governors’ emergency powers. Most are intended to shorten the duration of the state of emergency without further legislative action or approval, or otherwise limit the governor’s legal powers during the state of emergency. Such bills have increased in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, as governors have had to use those powers on a larger scale.
In Texas, which meets this year after skipping the previous legislative session, lawmakers have pre-filed at least eight disaster bills. These include:
- HB 570directing the Division of Emergency Management to conduct a study of the potential impact of drought and wildfires in the state over the next 50 years;
- HB 57directing the Council on Environmental Quality to publish a report on the impacts of climate change every four years, including an inventory of greenhouse gases; and
- HB 795which requires nursing and assisted living facilities to install emergency generators or other power sources for use in the event of a grid outage disaster.
Overall, funding and governance issues continue to dominate bills enacted in 2021-22, pending bills passed by one Senate and pre-filed bills in 2023-24. Safety and security dominate the pre-filed disaster bill for 2023, and it will be interesting to monitor whether that remains the case as the session progresses.
There are also several states that did not hold last year’s conventions this year. This includes Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, and perhaps most interestingly Texas – the disaster-prone state notorious for its “small government” values.
The broader federal context also offers its own possible foreshadowing of state action. Last year, Louisiana, Hawaii, Maryland and Virginia all passed legislation to create state-level disaster mitigation revolving loan funds using federal storm act funds. New York’s SB 8853 would do the same, but didn’t make it through its first committee.This limited activity may reflect the fact that while Congress passed the STORM Act in 2020, it was only funded nearly a year later by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), FEMA (FEMA) released the official document Notification of Funding Opportunities Just two weeks ago. As a result, we may see more states continue to take advantage of this funding opportunity in 2023. Likewise, states passed more disaster communications bills than energy or transportation bills in the last session, but with the IIJA, inflation reduction bill and federal 2021 spending bill emphasizing climate adaptation in addition to mitigation measures, especially in the transportation and energy sectors , countries may be incentivized to pay more attention to these sectors.
lucia prague Is Policy Manager and Lecturer National Disaster Preparedness Center exist Columbia Climate School.
Gillian McBride, a graduate student in the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs’ master of public administration program, and Abigail Menendez, a graduate student in the Columbia Climate Institute’s master’s program in climate and society, contributed to the research discussed in this post.
