S 388: Promoting Resilient Buildings Act

S 388 in plain English: This bill changes how FEMA handles pre-disaster mitigation funding by expanding which building code editions qualify for assistance, removing building code activities from an existing loan program, and creating a pilot grant program to help financially needy individuals make their homes more resilient to natural hazards.

Stated purpose

The bill aims to make homes and buildings more resistant to natural disasters by giving FEMA more flexibility in how it applies building code standards, directing certain disaster prevention loan funds away from building code activities, and creating a pilot grant program to help individual homeowners — especially those with financial need — pay for safety improvements to their homes.

Key points

• Allows FEMA predisaster mitigation assistance to apply to either of the two most recently published building code editions, not just the latest
• Prohibits use of FEMA's Safeguarding Tomorrow Revolving Loan Fund for building code-related activities
• Creates a pilot program where FEMA grants flow through government entities to individuals for home resilience retrofits
• Pilot program funded by up to 10% of annual FEMA predisaster hazard mitigation funds; ends after FY2030
• Retrofit projects must reduce risk from local natural hazards and recipients must demonstrate financial need

Arguments supporters make

• Helping individual homeowners — especially lower-income ones — harden their homes before a disaster strikes can reduce suffering and lower the overall cost of federal disaster relief after storms, floods, or wildfires.
• Allowing governments to qualify under either of the two most recent building code editions gives communities more realistic time to update local rules while still encouraging modern safety standards.
• A time-limited pilot program with required reporting lets Congress and FEMA learn what works before committing to a permanent, larger program.

Arguments opponents make

• Removing the ability to use revolving loan funds for building code activities could make it harder for smaller or less-resourced local governments to adopt and enforce the safety codes that protect everyone in a community.
• Capping the pilot at 10% of existing predisaster mitigation funds means the program competes with other hazard mitigation projects rather than receiving new dedicated money, potentially limiting its reach.
• Accepting older building code editions as qualifying standards could slow the spread of the most up-to-date safety requirements, leaving some communities building to outdated rules for longer.

Tradeoffs

The bill expands direct help to individual homeowners and gives local governments more flexibility, but does so partly by redirecting existing mitigation funds and removing a loan tool previously available for building code work — meaning some activities that were fundable before would no longer be, while new ones become possible.

Current status in Congress: In committee.

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