Emergency Preparedness Laws and Regulations
This tab includes laws, legislation, regulations, agency guidance, and executive orders relevant to emergency preparedness.
Resources are automatically presented by rating, but can be sorted by date or title. Apply additional filters to narrow by resource type, state, region, impact, or jurisdictional focus.
72 results are shown below.
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July 16, 2025
On September 8, 2025 the Kaua’i County mayor signed Bill No. 2961 into law, advancing wildfire mitigation efforts in Kaua’i’s plantation camp districts by implementing wildfire safety and risk reduction into the zoning and permitting process.
Related Organizations: County Council of Kaua'i
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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June 10, 2025
Connecticut Public Act No. 25-33, signed by the Governor on June 10, 2025, is a wide-reaching environmental and climate adaptation law that creates new standards and requirements for state and local government as well as the private sector. Sections 5-16 of the Act make revisions to Connecticut's land use and planning statutes, ensuring that Connecticut’s local planning and regulatory frameworks account for observed and projected climate conditions.
Related Organizations: State of Connecticut
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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June 1, 2025
In response to the growing intensity and frequency of wildfires, Colorado adopted a Wildfire Resilience Code, which sets minimum standards for structural hardening and fire hazard risk reduction for new buildings located in the wildland-urban interface.
Related Organizations: Colorado Department of Public Safety
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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May 22, 2025
Following back-to-back record breaking heat in 2023 and 2024, the Executive Department of Arizona under Governor Katie Hobbs issued Executive Order 2025-09 to address extreme heat as a recognized occupational hazard and require stronger workplace protections.
Related Organizations: State of Arizona
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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April 22, 2025
Passed by the state legislature in April 2025, “An Act to Increase Storm Preparedness for Maine's Communities, Homes and Infrastructure” (LD1) establishes the Maine State Resilience Office, creates a new home resiliency program, creates a revolving loan fund for resilience improvements, and provides funding to implement these new programs.
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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February 6, 2025
Following the devastating Los Angeles and Ventura County California wildfires in January 2025, the Executive Department of California under Governor Gavin Newsom issued Executive Order N-18-25 (“Urban Conflagration”) to increase wildfire resilience for individual homeowners and neighborhoods, and improve mapping and communications around wildfire incident management.
Related Organizations: California Office of the Governor
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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October 21, 2024
Executive Order 40 (EO40), Enhancing Coordination and Communication and Bolstering Wildfire Incident Command Operations, was issued in late 2024 by the Virginia Office of the Governor to better protect people, nature, and property from wildfires through effective incident communication. EO40 designates the Virginia Department of Forestry (VDOF) as the lead agency for wildfire management, improves wildfire communication and coordination, reforms incident command and resource allocation, and develops a memorandum of understanding (MOU) and policy language for the Commonwealth of Virginia Emergency Operations Plan (COVEOP).
Related Organizations: Office of the Governor of Virginia
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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September 5, 2024
Issued by Governor Wes Moore on September 4, 2024, Maryland Executive Order 01. 01. 2024. 31: Strengthening the State of Maryland’s Resilience Strategy prioritizes resilience against climate hazards and other threats to Maryland's infrastructure, economy, and vulnerable communities. The Order also builds on the 2022 Senate Bill 630, which established the Office of Resilience within the Maryland Department of Emergency Management, required the appointment of a Chief Resilience Officer, and set requirements for the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science to coordinate with the office.
Related Organizations: Maryland Office of the Governor
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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April 8, 2024
On April 8, 2024, the Virginia legislature passed HB 1458, amending and recodifying the role of the Chief Resilience Officer. The bill clarified existing duties, and created a state interagency team to help the CRO coordinate resilience efforts and various committees to inform the state on distribution of existing loan and grant programs related to resilience and development of the state’s flood plan.
Related Organizations: State of Virginia
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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December 9, 2023
The Nature-Based Solutions Resource Guide 2. 0, released by the White House in December of 2023, aims to encourage implementation and awareness of nature-based solutions employed by federal agencies and partners. The Guide defines nature-based solutions as “actions to protect, sustainably manage, or restore natural or modified ecosystems to address societal challenges, simultaneously providing benefits for people and the environment. ” Nature-based solutions can be used to provide a wide range of benefits, such as supporting wildlife, reducing heat stress, reducing future disaster risk, and overcoming environmental injustices.
Related Organizations: White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) , White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)
Resource Category: Data and tools
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