Legislation boosting long-term flood resilience introduced

WASHINGTON, D.C. | U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) introduced bipartisan legislation to boost long-term flood resilience and help communities rebuild stronger after disasters. Gillibrand and Ricketts' Flood Protection and Infrastructure Resilience Act would help communities make long-term flood prevention improvements after disasters, reduce the burden placed on local communities by allowing the U.S. Department of Agriculture to increase the federal share of funds available through the Emergency Watershed Protection Program, and officially make flood prevention and resilience a key priority within the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP). "As the climate crisis worsens and devastating floods become increasingly common, we must be better prepared and equipped to respond," said Senator Gillibrand. "Our bipartisan legislation will strengthen USDA's ability to help communities recover and rebuild. I will keep fighting to get this across the finish line to protect New Yorkers and improve resiliency across the country." "After big floods, federal red tape often slows recovery and delays rebuilding," said Sen. Ricketts. "These restrictions also make it difficult to modernize the infrastructure that keeps our communities safe. This bipartisan bill will improve flood protection and infrastructure resiliency. It will help communities rebuild stronger, preventing future damage." The Flood Protection and Infrastructure Resilience Act would: Improve the Emergency Watershed Protection Program's ability to not only help communities recover from flood disasters, but also make critical watershed improvements that will help prevent damage caused by future disasters. Allow the USDA Secretary to increase the federal cost share from 65 percent up to 90 percent under the Watershed Rehabilitation Program, which would help provide financial assistance to projects that repair and upgrade aging infrastructure to increase watershed resiliency. Amend the USDA RCPP to include flood prevention and mitigation as part of its official purpose and help agricultural producers, communities, and nongovernmental partners carry out regional and watershed-scale flood solutions. New York State is experiencing more frequent and severe flooding as the climate crisis worsens. Extreme rainfall events have increased by nearly 60 percent in recent decades across the Northeast, overwhelming outdated infrastructure that was never designed to handle today's conditions. For example, New York City's drainage systems were built to manage just 1.75 inches of rain per hour — yet recent storms have regularly produced 2 to 3 inches per hour, leading to widespread flooding. Sen. Gillibrand has long championed efforts to modernize aging infrastructure and strengthen its ability to withstand increasingly severe natural disasters. She previously introduced legislation to establish a dedicated stream of federal funding to improve the resilience of the nation's public transportation systems and has called for strong state–federal cooperation to ensure New York is fully prepared to respond to wildfires and other threats. The full text of the legislation can be found here.

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Legislation boosting long-term flood resilience introduced

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