in response to a new or changing environmental con-
dition, including such an adjustment associated with 
climate change, that exploits beneficial opportunities 
or moderates negative effects. 
(2) CLIMATE
CHANGE.—The term ‘‘climate 
change’’ means changes in average atmospheric and 
oceanic conditions that persist over multiple decades 
or longer and are natural or anthropogenic in origin, 
including— 
(A) increases and decreases in tempera-
ture; 
(B) shifts in precipitation; 
(C) shifts in ecoregion or biome geography 
and phenology, as applicable; 
(D) changing risk from certain types of 
rapid-onset climate hazards and slow-onset cli-
mate hazards; and 
(E) changes to other features of the cli-
mate system. 
(3) COUNCIL.—The term ‘‘Council’’ means the 
Partners Council on Adaptation and Resilience es-
tablished under subsection (c)(1). 
(4) FEDERAL
AGENCY.—The term ‘‘Federal 
agency’’ has the meaning given the term ‘‘Executive 
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agency’’ in section 105 of title 5, United States 
Code. 
(5) FREELY
ASSOCIATED
STATE.—The term 
‘‘Freely Associated State’’ means— 
(A) the Federated States of Micronesia; 
(B) the Republic of the Marshall Islands; 
and 
(C) the Republic of Palau. 
(6) IMPLEMENTATION PLAN.—The term ‘‘Im-
plementation Plan’’ means the Implementation Plan 
jointly developed by the Chief Resilience Officer and 
the working groups under subsection (d)(2). 
(7) INDIAN TRIBE.—The term ‘‘Indian Tribe’’ 
has the meaning given the term in section 4 of the 
Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance 
Act (25 U.S.C. 5304). 
(8) NATIONAL
CLIMATE
ASSESSMENT.—The 
term ‘‘National Climate Assessment’’ means the as-
sessment delivered to Congress and the President 
pursuant to section 106 of the Global Change Re-
search Act of 1990 (15 U.S.C. 2936). 
(9) REPRESENTED AGENCY.—The term ‘‘rep-
resented agency’’ means each Federal agency from 
which the Chief Resilience Officer appoints a mem-
ber to a working group. 
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(10) RESILIENCE.—The term ‘‘resilience’’ has 
the meaning given the term ‘‘climate resilience’’ in 
section 101 of title 10, United States Code. 
(11) SLOW-ONSET CLIMATE HAZARD.— 
(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘slow-onset 
climate hazard’’ means an environmental haz-
ard driven or exacerbated by climate change 
that evolves gradually through time due to in-
cremental change or because of an increasing 
frequency or intensity of recurring climate im-
pacts. 
(B) INCLUSIONS.—The term ‘‘slow-onset 
climate hazard’’ includes— 
(i) sea level rise; 
(ii) desertification; 
(iii) biodiversity loss or the alteration 
of or shift in habitat range of individual 
species or entire biomes; 
(iv) increasing temperatures; 
(v) ocean acidification; 
(vi) saltwater intrusion; 
(vii) soil salinization; 
(viii) drought and water scarcity; 
(ix) reduced snow pack; 
(x) sea ice retreat; 
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(xi) glacial ice retreat; 
(xii) permafrost thaw; and 
(xiii) coastal and river bank erosion. 
(12) STRATEGY.—The term ‘‘Strategy’’ means 
the National Adaptation and Resilience Strategy re-
quired to be developed jointly by the Chief Resilience 
Officer and the working groups under subsection 
(d)(1). 
(13) TERRITORIAL
GOVERNMENT.—The term 
‘‘territorial government’’ means the government of a 
territory (as defined in section 602(g) of the Social 
Security Act (42 U.S.C. 802(g))). 
(14) WORKING
GROUP.—The term ‘‘working 
group’’ means a working group established under 
subsection (b)(2)(B). 
(b) CHIEF RESILIENCE OFFICER AND NATIONAL AD-
APTATION AND RESILIENCE WORKING GROUPS.— 
(1) IN
GENERAL.—Not later than 120 days 
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Presi-
dent shall appoint a Chief Resilience Officer of the 
United States to serve in the Executive Office of the 
President. 
(2) DUTIES.—The Chief Resilience Officer 
shall— 
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(A) serve the President by directing a 
whole-of-government effort to build resilience to 
environmental vulnerabilities in the United 
States (as described in the National Climate 
Assessment or other relevant analyses identified 
by the Chief Resilience Officer) in collaboration 
with existing Federal initiatives and interagency 
adaptation efforts; 
(B) establish any necessary interagency 
working groups to facilitate coordination with 
respect to resilience and adaptation and the de-
velopment of the Strategy; and 
(C) at the end of a presidential administra-
tion, delegate the duties of the Chief Resilience 
Officer to the Executive Secretary of the Work-
ing Groups designated under paragraph (5)(A) 
until a new Chief Resilience Officer is ap-
pointed. 
(3) COMPENSATION.—The Chief Resilience Of-
ficer shall be paid at the rate of basic pay for level 
III of the Executive Schedule under section 5314 of 
title 5, United States Code. 
(4) NECESSARY ASSISTANCE.—To carry out the 
development of the Strategy and efforts of working 
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groups, each represented agency shall furnish nec-
essary assistance to that working group, such as— 
(A) a detail of employees to the working 
group to perform such functions as the Chief 
Resilience Officer may assign, including support 
staff for the Executive Secretary designated 
under paragraph (5)(A); and 
(B) on request of the Chief Resilience Offi-
cer, undertaking special studies for the working 
group as may be appropriate to carry out the 
functions of the working group. 
(5) EXECUTIVE SECRETARY.— 
(A) IN
GENERAL.—The Chief Resilience 
Officer shall designate a permanent employee of 
a represented agency to serve as Executive Sec-
retary of the Working Groups. 
(B) EMPLOYMENT.—The employee des-
ignated as Executive Secretary under subpara-
graph (A) shall remain an employee of the 
agency, department, or program from which the 
employee was appointed. 
(c) PARTNERS COUNCIL ON ADAPTATION AND RESIL-
IENCE.— 
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(1) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is established a 
council, to be known as the ‘‘Partners Council on 
Adaptation and Resilience’’. 
(2) MISSION
AND
FUNCTION.—The Council 
shall work to improve the adaptation and resilience 
operations of the Federal Government by providing 
recommendations through the Chief Resilience Offi-
cer, including those recommendations contained in 
the report required under paragraph (3), that iden-
tify how the Federal Government can better support 
non-Federal partners with equitable resources, tech-
nical assistance, improved policies, and other assist-
ance to help communities build resilience to chang-
ing environmental conditions. 
(3) REPORT.—Not later than 16 months after 
the date of enactment of this Act, and every 3 years 
thereafter, the Council, acting through the Chief Re-
silience Officer, shall submit to the President a re-
port that includes— 
(A) an analysis of the deficiencies or gaps 
in the resilience operations of the Federal Gov-
ernment that reduce or fail to increase the ca-
pacity of non-Federal partners to adapt to 
changing environmental conditions; 
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(B) an identification of the resources, in-
cluding Federal funding, necessary for non-Fed-
eral partners to adequately adapt to changing 
environmental conditions; and 
(C) recommendations with respect to how 
the Federal Government could better support 
efforts by non-Federal partners to expeditiously 
address vulnerabilities associated with climate 
change and build resilience. 
(4) CHAIR AND VICE CHAIR.—The Chief Resil-
ience Officer shall— 
(A) serve as chairperson of the Council; 
and 
(B) appoint a vice chairperson from among 
the members of the Council appointed pursuant 
to paragraph (5). 
(5) MEMBERSHIP.— 
(A) IN GENERAL.—In addition to the Chief 
Resilience Officer, the Council shall consist of 
not more than 23 members appointed by the 
Chief Resilience Officer. 
(B) APPOINTMENT.— 
(i) IN
GENERAL.—The Chief Resil-
ience Officer shall appoint members of the 
Council with relevant experiences to inform 
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how the Federal Government can better 
support State governments, local govern-
ments, territorial governments, the govern-
ments of Indian Tribes, the governments 
of Freely Associated States, nonprofit or-
ganizations, or private sector entities to 
build resilience to changing environmental 
conditions. 
(ii) NON-FEDERAL
PARTNER
MEM-
BERS.—The Chief Resilience Officer shall 
appoint 20 non-Federal partner members 
of the Council as follows: 
(I) 12 members who are employ-
ees of State governments, local gov-
ernments, territorial governments, the 
governments of Indian Tribes, or the 
governments of Freely Associated 
States, of which— 
(aa) not fewer than 2 shall 
be employees of a State govern-
ment; 
(bb) not fewer than 2 shall 
be employees of a unit of local 
government; 
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(cc) not fewer than 2 shall 
be employees of the government 
of an Indian Tribe; and 
(dd) not fewer than 2 shall 
be employees of a territorial gov-
ernment or the government of a 
Freely Associated State; and 
(II) 8 members who represent 
nongovernmental organizations and 
the private sector, of which— 
(aa) 3 shall represent non-
governmental organizations; 
(bb) 3 shall represent the 
private sector; and 
(cc) 2 shall represent aca-
demic institutions. 
(iii) REPRESENTED
AGENCY
MEM-
BERS.—The Chief Resilience Officer may, 
with the consent of those representatives, 
appoint not more than 3 representatives of 
represented agencies to the Council that 
the Chief Resilience Officer determines 
would promote dialogue useful for imple-
mentation of the duties of the Council 
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while keeping the size of the Council man-
ageable. 
(iv) SELECTION.—To the maximum 
extent practicable, the Chief Resilience Of-
ficer shall seek to select members of the 
Council who— 
(I) possess first-hand, lived expe-
rience of environmental vulnerability 
in the United States, including direct 
experience working with, or as mem-
bers of, communities that are highly 
vulnerable to changing environmental 
conditions; and 
(II) represent a diversity of— 
(aa) perspectives; 
(bb) demographics; 
(cc) geographies; 
(dd) 
political 
affiliations; 
and 
(ee) institution sizes, includ-
ing representatives of both small 
and large units of government 
and businesses. 
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(v) TERM.—Members appointed to the 
Council shall serve a single term of not 
more than 3 years, except that— 
(I) of the initial members ap-
pointed to the Council, the Chief Re-
silience Officer shall appoint— 
(aa) 1⁄2 of the members to 
serve for a term of 18 months; 
and 
(bb) 1⁄2 of the members to 
serve a term of 3 years; and 
(II) the Chief Resilience Officer 
may extend the term of any member 
of the Council by a period of not more 
than 1 year on a one-time basis, if the 
Chief Resilience Officer determines it 
necessary to support the work of the 
Council. 
(vi) VACANCIES.— 
(I) IN GENERAL.—A vacancy in 
the Council shall be filled in the same 
manner in which the original selection 
was made. 
(II) APPOINTMENT OF NEW MEM-
BERS.—After the expiration of the 
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