To the Members of the U.S. House of Representatives:
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce strongly supports H.R. 5689, the "Resilient Assistance for Mitigation for Environmentally Resilient Infrastructure and Construction by Americans (AMERICA) Act." This legislation would provide important policy and practical solutions to address key climate challenges and to build smart, modern, resilient infrastructure in communities across the United States. The Chamber will consider including votes related to this legislation in our annual "How They Voted" scorecard.
The Resilient AMERICA Act would achieve the following goals crucial to predisaster mitigation and sustainability:
· Increase the annual spending for the new National Public Infrastructure Predisaster Mitigation fund from up to 6% to up to 15% of postdisaster funding;
· Require unspent funds to be recaptured for mitigation and resilience projects;
· Extend eligibility for Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program grant funding to private non-profit organizations;
· Provide a 10% set-aside within BRIC to enforce the adoption of newer building codes;
· Add wildfires and tsunamis, including strengthening utilities against wind, ice, and wildfire risks as eligible hazards to receive funding;
· Establish a 10% set-aside within BRIC to fund residential resilience retrofit grants — upgrades to strengthen homes resilience and comply with consensus-based codes and standards, including wind and roof retrofits, floodproofing, and constructing saferooms.
We urge you to support this legislation that would help provide the tools the private sector needs to meet America’s climate and resilience needs.
Sincerely,
Jack Howard
Senior Vice President
Government Affairs
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
