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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December 20, 2022
In December of 2022, President Biden signed S.3875, the Community Disaster Resilience Zones Act, into law. The Community Disaster Resilience Zones Act designates zones in disadvantaged communities that are “most at risk to natural hazards.” If a community is designated under the Act, it will receive targeted federal funding and increased federal cost-share for projects that reduce the impacts of natural hazards and climate change. In May 2023, the Federal Emergency Management Agency published a notice and request for public input The comment period closes July 25, 2023 .
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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December 5, 2022
Signed into law by President Biden in December of 2022, the Disaster Resiliency Planning Act (Public Law No. 117-221) requires the Office of Management and Budget to develop guidance “requiring the head of each agency to incorporate natural disaster resilience into real property asset management and investment decisions made by the agency. ” The legislation was authored by U. S. Senator Gary Peters (D-MI), Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and U. S. Senator Rick Scott (R-FL).
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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November 2022
In November of 2022, New York voters approved the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act, which authorizes the creation of state debt and state bonds for “preserving, enhancing, and restoring” the natural resources of New York and reducing the impacts of climate change.
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October 1, 2022
On October 1, 2022, Maryland Senate Bill 630 took effect, establishing the Maryland Office of Resilience within the Department of Emergency Management and creating a Chief Resilience Officer (CRO) to coordinate resilience efforts across state government. The Bill, which is codified in the state’s Public Safety Code in a new Subtitle 12, requires the Office of Resilience, led by the CRO, to coordinate across state agencies and local governments to “build resilience to risks identified in the Maryland Hazard Mitigation Plan.
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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June 16, 2022
Greauxing Resilience at Home: A Regional Vision is an innovative legal, planning, and policy resource to promote community resilience through housing and nature-based solutions in places where flooding, extreme weather events, and other factors are driving population changes and transitions. It was developed by Capital Region Planning Commission and Georgetown Climate Center, in collaboration with policymakers, community members, and other stakeholders in Region Seven of the Louisiana Watershed Initiative
Authors or Affiliated Users: Katie Spidalieri , Rachelle Sanderson , Suhasini Ghosh , Annie Bennett , Katherine McCormick , Jennifer Li
Resource Category: Solutions
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September 23, 2021
On September 23, 2021, California signed a $15-billion climate-investment package that includes 24 bills dedicated to tackling the climate crisis and protecting frontline communities in California. The bills address clean energy, wildfires, droughts, community climate resilience, sustainable agriculture, extreme heat, and sea-level rise, among other topics. As Governor Gavin Newsom explained, the bills aim to address “the climate crisis head-on while protecting the hardest-hit communities” in California.
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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September 14th, 2021
The U. S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released this report, in response to congressional requests, to determine how agencies prevent or reduce natural disaster damage to real property. As the largest real property owner in the United States, the federal government has assets that are exposed to a high level of risk from extreme weather and climate-related events. The federal government has an opportunity to enhance natural disaster resilience of their real property through effective asset management.
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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June 26, 2021
On April 23, 2021, the Oregon legislature passed a comprehensive wildfire planning and mitigation bill. The bill involves multiple state agencies and calls for a wide range of action to address wildfire in the state, including planning for wildfire, land use and development methods for mitigating wildfire, health programs, and landscape resiliency programs.
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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May 30, 2021
Maryland Senate Bill 901, enacted in May 2021, establishes the Resilient Maryland Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) — a special fund that provides low- or no-interest loans to local governments and nonprofit organizations for local resilience projects to mitigate hazards including natural disasters.
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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May 2021
In May 2021, the Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT) Highways Division released the Hawaii Highways Climate Adaptation Action Plan. The Action Plan will serve as a roadmap to make Hawaii’s highways more resilient to climate change based on a forward-looking analysis that recognizes the impacts of climate change-related hazards on transportation assets. This is a noteworthy step for Hawaii, which is updating its traditional highway design and planning processes. The Action Plan is a useful example for state departments of transportation, local metropolitan planning organizations, and other planners and policymakers looking to incorporate climate change impacts and considerations into transportation exposure assessments, plans, and designs.
Resource Category: Planning
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