Congressman Panetta Leads Bipartisan Call for Flood Resilient Infrastructure in Hurricane Rebuild

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) today led 21 of his colleagues in sending a bipartisan letter to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney P. Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) and Ranking Member Nita M. Lowey (D-NY), encouraging them to include a flood risk measure in legislation funding hurricane recovery efforts that ensures federally-financed infrastructure projects are designed to better withstand future storms. Last month, the Trump administration sent a request to Congress for $44 billion in recovery aid for the communities impacted by hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria. The Appropriations Committee is currently considering that request.

"As exemplified by this year's hurricanes, flooding can lead to catastrophic loss of life and property. Unless Congress takes concrete steps to ensure that communities rebuild in a way that makes infrastructure more resilient to future flooding, we will continue to not only leave our citizens at risk, but also face the need to spend billions of dollars repeatedly rebuilding our infrastructure," said Congressman Panetta. "Implementing a federal flood protection measure, as was done after Hurricane Sandy, is prudent policy that will ensure communities are built stronger than ever and taxpayer dollars are spent wisely."

In September, Congressmen Panetta, a member of the Climate Solutions Caucus and representative of the central coast of California, introduced H.R. 3854, the Federal Infrastructure Flood Resiliency Act. This bipartisan bill would ensure federal agencies complete implementation of a Federal Flood Risk Management Standard (FFRMS) for government-funded infrastructure projects to reduce exposure to flooding. In August, Executive Order 13690 was revoked, preventing agencies from implementing FFRMS. Congressmen Panetta's legislation would give the Executive Order the force and effect of law so that agencies complete implementation of a FFRMS to make federally funded infrastructure more resilient to flooding.

The full text of the letter is below:

Dear Chairman Frelinghuysen and Ranking Member Lowey:

As you consider future legislation to fund rebuilding efforts in the devastating aftermath of hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, we strongly encourage you to include measures to protect federally-financed infrastructure projects from future flooding. By incorporating resilience in projects funded by federal appropriations, we can create an effective disaster risk management strategy that protects communities while ensuring the prudent use of taxpayer dollars.

Congress appropriated roughly $60 billion in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and roughly $120 billion in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, with preliminary cost estimates for this year's hurricanes potentially much higher. Yet, from 2005 to 2014, Congress designated less than $700 million towards FEMA pre-disaster mitigation grants even though every dollar invested in mitigation results in $4 saved in recovery costs. Accordingly, we agree with Texas Governor Greg Abbott who recently stated, "As we go through the build-out phase, and rebuilding Texas, part of our focus must be on rebuilding in a way that will prevent a disaster like this from happening again."

Recognizing the need for smart rebuilding, the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force recommended a federal flood protection measure, in line with many existing state and local measures. Projects receiving federal dollars appropriated for Sandy recovery complied with elevation and flood-proofing measures to avoid rebuilding yet again after a future storm. To ensure we do not need to pay multiple times to repair for flooding damages in impacted areas moving forward, we should, at a minimum, incorporate the resilience measures used during Sandy recovery in all federally funded recovery projects.

While the current administration is revisiting measures to mitigate future flooding, we believe it is critical that Congress legislate a flood risk measure in future disaster spending bills, particularly as we prepare to make historic investments rebuilding Florida, Puerto Rico, Texas and the U.S. Virgin Islands. We should invest in more resilient project designs that allow communities to recover quickly while better protecting them against future flooding.

As exemplified by the recent storms, flooding can lead to catastrophic loss of life and property. Unless Congress takes concrete steps to ensure that communities rebuild in a way that makes infrastructure more resilient to future flooding, we will continue to not only leave our citizens at risk, but also face the need to spend billions of dollars repeatedly rebuilding our infrastructure. Accordingly, we strongly encourage you to include a flood risk reduction measure that projects funded by supplemental spending legislation for hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria must meet.

We thank you for your attention to this matter and look forward to working with you.

Sincerely,