Climate Resilient Communities Act

Climate Resilient Communities Act

This bill directs the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to evaluate and issue a report on the structural and economic impacts of climate resiliency at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Specifically, GAO, within one year of this bill's enactment and every five years thereafter, must evaluate and report to Congress on the economic benefits, including avoided impacts on property and life, of the use of model, consensus-based building codes, standards, and provisions that support resilience to climate risks and impacts.

The report shall include

• an assessment of the status of adoption of building codes, standards, and provisions within the states, territories, and tribes at the state or jurisdictional level;
• analysis of the extent to which pre-disaster mitigation measures provide benefits to the nation and individual states, territories and tribes;
• an assessment of the building codes and standards referenced or otherwise currently incorporated into federal policies and programs, and the extent to which such codes and standards contribute to increasing climate resiliency; and
• recommendations for FEMA on how to better incorporate climate resiliency into efforts to rebuild after natural disasters.