H.R. 501, Promoting Resilient Buildings Act of 2025

H.R. 501 would authorize the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to establish a pilot program and award grants to state and tribal governments designed to mitigate the effects of future disasters on residential properties by reducing damage from flooding, wind, wildfire, and seismic activity. Under the bill, the agency could allocate up to 10 percent of funds set aside each year for the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program for the new grants. The BRIC program is funded through amounts that the agency sets aside within the Disaster Relief Fund. The new grant program would terminate after 2030.

The legislation also would require FEMA to report to the Congress within six years of enactment, summarizing the awards made under the pilot program, including an estimate of the amount of damage avoided under the program.

Over the 2020-2024 period, FEMA set aside an average of about $500 million annually for the BRIC program, not including amounts related to the coronavirus pandemic or provided by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. For this estimate, CBO assumes that FEMA will continue to set aside the same amount each year and that the agency would allocate the full 10 percent of that amount allowed under the legislation for new grants. Thus, CBO expects that under H.R. 501, FEMA would allocate $50 million annually each year over the 2025-2030 period for the pilot program.

On that basis, and using historical spending patterns, CBO estimates that implementing
H.R. 501 would cost $190 million over the 2025-2030 period and an additional $110 million after 2030.

The costs of the legislation, detailed in Table 1, fall within budget function 450 (community and regional development).

The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Jon Sperl. The estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.