WASHINGTON, D.C. – Wednesday, U.S. Senators Pete Ricketts (R-NE) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced the Flood Protection and Infrastructure Resilience Act. The bill would elevate long-term flood resilience as a priority for the Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) Program. It would grant the Secretary of Agriculture discretionary authority to provide an increased federal cost share for EWP grants. It would also elevate flood protection as a priority in the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP). Ricketts is a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
“After big floods, federal red tape often slows recovery and delays rebuilding,” said Senator 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.”
“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.”
Bill text can be found here.
The bill has the support of the American Flood Coalition.
BACKGROUND
The Flood Protection and Infrastructure Resilience Act would:
- Improve EWP’s level of protection above existing water levels at the time of the disaster to not only help communities recover from flood disasters, but also make critical watershed improvements that would reduce repeated damage during future disasters.
- Grant the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary discretionary authority to provide a variable federal cost share of up to 90% in the Watershed Rehabilitation Program, which provides technical and financial assistance for planning, design, and implementation of projects to rehabilitate aging watershed dams.
- Amend the USDA Regional Conservation Partnership Program to formally add flood prevention, mitigation, and resiliency to RCPP’s statutory purpose, and enable the program to better assist agricultural producers, communities, and nongovernmental stakeholders in implementing regional and watershed-scale flood solutions.
