New Climate Legislation Introduced

A few months ago, several SCAN conveners had the opportunity to be part of conversations to help inform pieces of the climate agenda for the House Science Committee and the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.

Today, two new pieces of legislation are being introduced as part of those outcomes (see press release): The FLOODS Act (H.R. 1438) and the PRECIP Act (H.R. 1437) (and yes, we like the acronyms!). They haven't yet been scheduled for markup, but we'll update this post when they are. Both Acts have been endorsed by multiple professional societies.

The pieces of legislation are intended to provide better information for flood preparedness and relate to NOAA programs or datasets. The FLOODS act creates a new Integrated Flood Information System, among other provisions, and the PRECIP act directs NOAA (and would provide funding) to update some precipitation data, including 'Probable Maximum Precipitation' or PMP data - a measure of potential extreme rainfall.