I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3724 
To minimize the economic and social costs resulting from losses of life, 
property, well-being, business activity, and economic growth associated 
with extreme weather events by ensuring that the United States is 
more resilient to the impacts of extreme weather events in the short- 
and long-term, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 8, 2017 
Mr. PETERS (for himself, Mr. CARTWRIGHT, Mr. POCAN, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, 
Mr. HECK, Mr. HUFFMAN, Ms. SINEMA, Mr. CONNOLLY, Mr. TONKO, 
Mr. QUIGLEY, Mr. THOMPSON of California, Miss RICE of New York, Mr. 
KILMER, Mr. MOULTON, and Ms. STEFANIK) introduced the following 
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infra-
structure 
A BILL 
To minimize the economic and social costs resulting from 
losses of life, property, well-being, business activity, and 
economic growth associated with extreme weather events 
by ensuring that the United States is more resilient 
to the impacts of extreme weather events in the short- 
and long-term, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Strengthening The Re-
siliency of Our Nation on the Ground Act’’ or the 
‘‘STRONG Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find-
ings: 
(1) Extreme weather has serious economic costs 
for Americans, American businesses, and State and 
local governments. Hurricanes, droughts, floods, tor-
nadoes, extreme heat, and extreme cold cause death, 
result in loss of property and well-being, especially 
among the most vulnerable populations, and nega-
tively impact business activity and economic growth. 
(2) Superstorm Sandy, which devastated the 
Eastern United States in late October 2012, re-
sulted in more than 100 deaths, the evacuation of 
hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, 
power outages affecting more than 8,500,000 homes, 
massive flooding, gasoline shortages, and a crippled 
regional energy and transportation infrastructure. 
As a result of this storm, Congress passed the Dis-
aster Relief Appropriations Act, 2013, which appro-
priated $50,500,000,000 for post-Sandy recovery ef-
forts. 
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(3) In the past 30 years, there have been more 
than 130 weather-related disasters in the United 
States that each generated at least $1,000,000,000 
in damages or more than $880,000,000,000 in total 
standardized loss. In addition, there have been many 
other extreme weather events that generated less 
than $1,000,000,000 in damages, but still caused 
immeasurable harm to the Nation’s citizens, infra-
structure, and economy. 
(4) Hurricane Katrina led to more than 1,800 
deaths, 
property 
damage 
exceeding 
$80,000,000,000, more than $120,000,000,000 in 
Federal spending, and long-term impacts on the 
economy and livelihoods of those living in the Gulf 
Coast region. 
(5) In 2011, one of the most severe and costly 
years for weather and climate on record, extreme 
weather hit every region in the United States, result-
ing in— 
(A) prolonged droughts in the South and 
the West; 
(B) deadly floods in the Southeast and 
Midwest; 
(C) hundreds of devastating tornadoes 
across the United States; 
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(D) Hurricane Irene in the Northeast; 
(E) more than $50,000,000,000 in weath-
er-related damages; 
(F) 14 extreme weather events, which re-
sulted in more than $1,000,000,000 in damages 
each and caused a combined death toll of hun-
dreds of people; and 
(G) many other extreme weather events 
with lesser, but still significant, impacts. 
(6) In 2012, in addition to Superstorm Sandy, 
the United States experienced— 
(A) drought conditions in more than 60 
percent of the contiguous United States at the 
peak of the drought, including more than 2,200 
counties that have received disaster designa-
tions from the Secretary of Agriculture due to 
the drought; 
(B) deadly floods in Minnesota, Tropical 
Storm Debby in Florida, and Hurricane Isaac 
in Louisiana; 
(C) destructive wildfires on more than 
9,000,000 acres across 37 States; 
(D) power outages affecting more than 
3,400,000 homes due to severe storms during 
the summer; and 
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(E) deadly heat waves, highlighted by July 
as the warmest month on record for the contig-
uous United States and more than 9,600 daily 
high temperature records broken during June, 
July, and August. 
(7) These events and natural disaster trends, 
when combined with the volatility of weather, ongo-
ing demographic changes, and development in high 
risk areas, indicate that the negative impacts of ex-
treme weather events and natural disasters have the 
potential to increase over time. The fact that a sig-
nificant number of people and assets continue to be 
located in areas prone to volatile and extreme weath-
er indicates that these events will continue to be ex-
pensive and deadly if the United States fails to en-
hance its resiliency to such events. Recent studies 
show that the intensity and frequency of some types 
of, but not all, extreme weather events will likely in-
crease in the future. 
(8) Economic savings can be achieved by con-
sidering the impacts of extreme weather over the 
short- and long-term in the planning process. For 
example, a 2005 review of the Federal Emergency 
Management Agency’s hazard mitigation programs, 
conducted by the National Institute of Building 
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Sciences’ Multi-Hazard Mitigation Council, found 
that every dollar spent on hazard mitigation yields 
a savings of $4 in future losses. 
(9) There are several efforts currently under-
way at the Federal, regional, tribal, State, and local 
levels that have helped lay the foundation for a fed-
erally coordinated effort to increase the Nation’s re-
siliency to extreme weather events, such as the Hur-
ricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, the Presi-
dential Policy Directive on National Preparedness 
(referred to in this Act as ‘‘PPD–8’’), the National 
Preparedness System, the whole community ap-
proach led by the Department of Homeland Secu-
rity, and the Silver Jackets Program by the Army 
Corps of Engineers. Other recent reports on this 
subject include the National Academies of Sciences’ 
reports ‘‘Disaster Resilience: A National Imperative’’ 
and ‘‘Building Community Disaster Resilience 
through Public-Private Collaboration’’. 
(b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to mini-
mize the economic and social costs and future losses of 
life, property, well-being, business activity, and economic 
growth by making the United States more resilient to the 
impacts of extreme weather events over the short- and 
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long-term, thereby creating business and job growth op-
portunities by— 
(1) ensuring that the Federal Government is 
optimizing its use of existing resources and funding 
to support State and local officials, businesses, tribal 
nations, and the public to become more resilient, in-
cluding— 
(A) encouraging the consideration of, and 
ways to incorporate, extreme weather resilience 
across Federal operations, programs, policies, 
and initiatives; 
(B) promoting improved coordination of 
existing and planned Federal extreme weather 
resilience and adaptation efforts that impact ex-
treme weather resilience and ensuring their co-
ordination with, and support of, State, local, re-
gional, and tribal efforts; 
(C) minimizing Federal policies that may 
unintentionally hinder or reduce resilience, such 
as damaging wetlands or other critical green in-
frastructure, or lead Federal agencies to oper-
ate at cross-purposes in achieving extreme 
weather resilience; and 
(D) building upon existing related efforts, 
such as the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task 
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Force, the PPD–8, the National Preparedness 
System, and the whole community approach; 
(2) communicating the latest understanding 
and likely short- and long-term human and economic 
impacts and risks of extreme weather to businesses 
and the public; 
(3) supporting decisionmaking that improves 
resilience by providing forecasts and projections, 
data decision-support tools, and other information 
and mechanisms; and 
(4) establishing a consistent vision and strategic 
plan for extreme weather resilience across the Fed-
eral Government. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 
the Director of the Office of Science and Technology 
Policy. 
(2) EXTREME WEATHER.—The term ‘‘extreme 
weather’’ includes severe and unseasonable weather, 
heavy precipitation, hurricanes, storm surges, torna-
does, other windstorms (including derechos), extreme 
heat, extreme cold, and other qualifying weather 
events as determined by the interagency group es-
tablished under section 4(a)(1). 
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