Title: A bill to require the Secretary of Transportation to develop best practices for incorporating resilience into emergency relief projects, and for other purposes.
Policy area: Transportation and Public Works

Summary:
This bill requires the Department of Transportation to (1) revise the emergency relief manual of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), including by incorporating resilience into its emergency relief program; (2) develop best practices for improving the use of resilience in the program; (3) provide information on such best practices to the FHWA and states; and (4) develop and implement a process to track the consideration of resilience as part of emergency relief efforts and the costs of emergency relief products. (The emergency relief program provides funds for emergency and permanent repairs on federal-aid highways and roads that have suffered serious damage because of a natural disaster or catastrophic failure from an external cause.)

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2129 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 2129

 To require the Secretary of Transportation to develop best practices 
 for incorporating resilience into emergency relief projects, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 16, 2019

  Ms. Baldwin (for herself, Mr. Braun, and Mr. Cardin) introduced the 
 following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 
                      Environment and Public Works

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To require the Secretary of Transportation to develop best practices 
 for incorporating resilience into emergency relief projects, and for 
                            other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. EMERGENCY RELIEF PROGRAM.

    (a) Definitions.--In this Act:
            (1) Emergency relief project.--The term ``emergency relief 
        project'' means a project carried out under the emergency 
        relief program under section 125 of title 23, United States 
        Code.
            (2) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary 
        of Transportation.
    (b) Improving the Emergency Relief Program.--Not later than 90 days 
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall--
            (1) revise the emergency relief manual of the Federal 
        Highway Administration--
                    (A) to include and reflect a definition of the term 
                ``resilience'';
                    (B) to identify procedures that States may use to 
                incorporate resilience into emergency relief projects; 
                and
                    (C) to encourage the use of Complete Streets design 
                principles and consideration of access for moderate- 
                and low-income families impacted by a declared 
                disaster;
            (2) develop best practices for improving the use of 
        resilience in--
                    (A) the emergency relief program under section 125 
                of title 23, United States Code; and
                    (B) emergency relief efforts;
            (3) provide to division offices of the Federal Highway 
        Administration and State departments of transportation 
        information on the best practices developed under paragraph 
        (2); and
            (4) develop and implement a process to track--
                    (A) the consideration of resilience as part of the 
                emergency relief program under section 125 of title 23, 
                United States Code; and
                    (B) the costs of emergency relief projects.
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