Pew Joins Over 40 Groups Urging Congress to Pass Bipartisan Resilience Bill
The Pew Charitable Trusts and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce—together with planners, engineers, developers, and leaders from business associations, local government institutions, the insurance industry, fiscal conservative organizations, the nonprofit sector, and others—sent a letter on Aug. 2 to leadership of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee in support of the National Climate Adaptation and Resilience Strategy Act.
August 2, 2022
The Honorable Gary Peters
Chairman
Committee on Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Rob Portman
Ranking Member
Committee on Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Jack Reed
Chairman
Committee on Armed Services
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable James Inhofe
Ranking Member
Committee on Armed Services
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Chairman Peters, Chairman Reed, Ranking Member Portman, and Ranking Member Inhofe:
Re: Support for S. 3531, the National Climate Adaptation and Resilience Strategy Act
The undersigned organizations strongly support S. 3531, the National Climate Adaptation and Resilience Strategy Act.
In the last 20 years, natural disasters have caused more than $1.5 trillion in damage and economic losses across the United States. Increasing disaster costs and impacts pose a growing threat to American lives, livelihoods, infrastructure, supply chains, and military readiness. These issues must be met with whole-of-government approaches to proactively reduce risk and eliminate the siloed tendency of federal resilience programs that are contributing to ongoing project and planning challenges faced by state and local partners.
The National Climate Adaptation and Resilience Strategy Act would augment federal resilience initiatives to strengthen national security and ensure that small businesses, disadvantaged communities, other localities, states, and regions have the necessary tools and coordinated funding, guidance, and support to prepare before disasters strike. The effectiveness of federal efforts would be improved by establishing a chief resilience officer within the White House that works with the interagency community and nonfederal entities to identify barriers to building smart, modern, resilient infrastructure, and opportunities to address them. Further, communities would be better able to withstand future climate threats through the development of a national strategy to improve intergovernmental coordination, incentivize funding for predisaster mitigation and resilience planning, enhance technical assistance and capacity building, and leverage nature-based solutions.
We urge Congress to take up and pass this important legislation.
Sincerely,
American Council of Engineering Companies
American Flood Coalition Action
American Planning Association
American Property Casualty Insurance Association
American Public Works Association
American Society of Adaptation Professionals
American Society of Civil Engineers
American Society of Landscape Architects
ARUP
BuildStrong
Coalition Center for Climate and Energy Solutions
City Parks Alliance
Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers
Ecological Restoration Business Association
Enterprise Community Partners
Federal Association for Insurance Reform
Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety
Interstate Council on Water Policy
Land Trust Alliance
League of Women Voters
LOCUS: Responsible Real Estate Developers & Investors
Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative
National Association of Clean Water Agencies
National Association of Counties
National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies
National Institute of Building Sciences
National League of Cities
National Recreation and Park Association
National Wildlife Federation
Natural Resources Defense Council
R Street Institute
Reinsurance Association of America
Resilience 21 Coalition
Resilience Hub and Collaboratory Network
Resilient Cities Network
SBP
Smart Growth America
Smart Home America
SmarterSafer
Taxpayers for Common Sense
The Nature Conservancy
The Pew Charitable Trusts
Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership
Transportation for America
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Union of Concerned Scientists
cc: Members of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
cc: Members of the Senate Committee on Armed Services
