I 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 9771 

To amend the Research and Development, Competition, and Innovation Act 

to support research into the effects of extreme weather on the subsurface 

natural and built environment, to support engineering standards and 

building codes for resilient designs against multihazards, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 24, 2024 

Ms. MCCLELLAN introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Science, Space, and Technology 

A BILL 

To amend the Research and Development, Competition, and 

Innovation Act to support research into the effects of 

extreme weather on the subsurface natural and built 

environment, to support engineering standards and building codes for resilient designs against multihazards, and 

for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Building and Upgrad5 ing Infrastructure for the Long Term Act’’ or the 

6 ‘‘BUILT Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. SUBSURFACE ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH AND DE2 VELOPMENT. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subtitle B of title II of division 

4 B of the Research and Development, Competition, and In5 novation Act (enacted as part of division B of Public Law 

6 117–167; 42 U.S.C. 18931 et seq.) is amended by adding 

7 at the end the following new sections: 

8 ‘‘SEC. 10236. SUBSURFACE ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH AND 

9 DEVELOPMENT. 

10 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Subject to the availability of ap11 propriations, the Director shall support measurement re12 search and testing to inform the development of engineer13 ing standards, practices, and building codes on the sub14 surface environment as such relate to the built environ15 ment. 

16 ‘‘(b) RESEARCH AREAS.—Research and testing under 

17 subsection (a) may include the following: 

18 ‘‘(1) Measuring, modeling, and predicting the 

19 properties of subsurface materials of soil, rock, and 

20 groundwater elevations, taking into consideration 

21 changing climate conditions. 

22 ‘‘(2) Sensing technology for monitoring sub23 surface infrastructure and phenomena, such as land 

24 subsidence, that may affect subsurface infrastruc25 ture. 


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1 ‘‘(3) Risks to subsurface infrastructure integ2 rity, including subsurface infrastructure capacity, re3 sulting from changes in subsurface material prop4 erties associated with climate conditions and other 

5 environmental variables. 

6 ‘‘(4) Enhancing building design standards and 

7 best practices related to the following: 

8 ‘‘(A) Evaluation of subsurface material 

9 properties and potential geological hazards that 

10 affect below-ground infrastructure. 

11 ‘‘(B) Design and retrofit of below-ground 

12 infrastructure. 

13 ‘‘(5) Other research areas determined appro14 priate by the Director. 

15 ‘‘(c) CONSULTATION.—The Director shall carry out 

16 this section in consultation with academia, the private sec17 tor, nonprofit organizations, professional associations, and 

18 other appropriate Federal, State, Tribal, territorial, and 

19 local entities. 

20 ‘‘SEC. 10237. CLIMATE RESILIENCE RESEARCH AND DEVEL21 OPMENT. 

22 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Subject to the availability of ap23 propriations, the Director shall support measurement re24 search and testing to inform the development of engineer25 ing standards, practices, and building codes for resilience 


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1 of the built environment, which may include measurement 

2 research and development for the following: 

3 ‘‘(1) Future climate conditions, loads, and ef4 fects on infrastructure. 

5 ‘‘(2) Multihazard and cascading hazard risk 

6 and resilience modeling and prediction. 

7 ‘‘(3) Design standards and best practices for 

8 climate-resilient infrastructure, including lifeline in9 frastructure. 

10 ‘‘(4) Sensing technology for monitoring infra11 structure integrity. 

12 ‘‘(5) Future climate effects on infrastructure 

13 capacity over its life cycle. 

14 ‘‘(b) WORKSHOP ON MULTIHAZARD RESILIENT DE15 SIGN FRAMEWORK.—Not later than two years after the 

16 date of the enactment of this section, the Director shall 

17 convene, or enter into a cooperative agreement with an 

18 appropriate nongovernmental organization to convene, a 

19 workshop composed of subject matter experts, stake20 holders, and partners from Federal, State, Tribal, terri21 torial, and local entities, nongovernmental organizations, 

22 private sector entities, disaster management professional 

23 associations, engineering professional associations, profes24 sional construction and homebuilding industry associa25 tions, and building code setting organizations to discuss 


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1 a framework for designing multihazard resilient buildings 

2 and infrastructure, including identifying research and 

3 measurement needs for the following: 

4 ‘‘(1) Risk and resilience assessments and mod5 eling, including cascading hazards and interactions 

6 between multiple hazards. 

7 ‘‘(2) Functional recovery design. 

8 ‘‘(3) Climate resilient design. 

9 ‘‘(4) Analysis and retrofit of existing building 

10 and infrastructure stock. 

11 ‘‘(5) Financial tools for decision-support. 

12 ‘‘(6) Other areas determined appropriate by the 

13 Director. 

14 ‘‘(c) REPORT.—Not later than one year after the date 

15 on which the workshop described in subsection (b) is com16 pleted, the Director shall submit to Congress and make 

17 available to the public a report on the findings of the work18 shop, including any recommendations for legislative action 

19 that could strengthen the multihazard resilience of the 

20 United States. 

21 ‘‘(d) CONSULTATION.—The Director shall carry out 

22 this section in consultation with academia, the private sec23 tor, nonprofit organizations, professional associations, and 

24 other appropriate Federal agencies. 

25 ‘‘(e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 


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1 ‘‘(1) CLIMATE RESILIENCE.—The term ‘climate 

2 resilience’ has the meaning given the term in section 

3 101(a) of title 10, United States Code. 

4 ‘‘(2) LIFELINE INFRASTRUCTURE.—The term 

5 ‘lifeline infrastructure’ has the meaning given the 

6 term in section 4 of the Earthquake Hazards Reduc7 tion Act of 1977 (42 U.S.C. 7703).’’. 

8 (b) RISK AND RESILIENCE RESEARCH.—Section 

9 10351 of the Research and Development, Competition, 

10 and Innovation Act (42 U.S.C. 19060) is amended— 

11 (1) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘and’’ after 

12 the semicolon; 

13 (2) in paragraph (5), by striking the period and 

14 inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

15 (3) by adding at the end the following new 

16 paragraph: 

17 ‘‘(6) multidisciplinary research to understand, 

18 model, and predict subsurface geological phenomena 

19 related to climate variations and the impact of such 

20 on infrastructure design and operations, to manage 

21 risk and improve resiliency of the built environ22 ment.’’. 

23 (c) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 

24 in section 1 of Public Law 117–167 is amended by insertVerDate Sep 11 2014 06:38 Oct 05, 2024 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H9771.IH H9771

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1 ing after the item relating to section 10235 the following 

2 new items: 

‘‘Sec. 10236. Subsurface environment research and development. 

‘‘Sec. 10237. Climate resilience research and development.’’. 

Æ 


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