National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program Reauthorization Act of 2025
The National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program Reauthorization Act of 2025 reauthorizes and expands the Earthquake Hazards Reduction Act of 1977 (NEHRP). It broadens participation to include Tribal governments, updates findings to reflect evolving risk, and places a stronger emphasis on reducing losses through not only building standards and retrofits but also post-earthquake functional recovery and early warning. The bill expands program duties to develop inventories of high-seismic-risk buildings and lifelines, create or update guidelines and consensus codes, and support “functional recovery” planning so communities can quickly resume essential functions after earthquakes. It also strengthens earthquake early warning capabilities and requires closer interagency coordination, data sharing, and communication with the public (including broadcasting alerts in multiple languages). The measure authorizes specific federal funding for USGS, NSF, and NIST for fiscal years 2024–2028 to implement these objectives and to complete the Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS). In short, this bill modernizes NEHRP by adding tribal and local community emphasis, expanding the focus from just structural safety to post-earthquake recovery and resilience, upgrading early warning and information sharing, and providing dedicated multi-year federal funding to support these activities and related research and standards development.
Key Points
- 1Inclusion of Tribal governments and expanded scope: The bill systematically includes tribal jurisdictions and broadens responsibilities to planning, designing, constructing, evaluating, and retrofitting buildings and lifeline infrastructure, with explicit attention to vulnerable populations and community resilience.
- 2Emphasis on functional recovery and inventories: It introduces and requires focus on post-earthquake functional recovery, creation of inventories of high-seismic-risk buildings and lifelines, and cost-effective retrofit practices to maintain or quickly restore critical functions after earthquakes.
- 3Expanded earthquake early warning and hazards coordination: The Act strengthens the earthquake early warning system, requires coordination with the FCC for rapid, multilingual alert broadcasting, and expands the system to more high-risk areas, including coordination with NOAA on oceanic earthquakes and tsunamis.
- 4Interagency coordination, reporting, and best practices: It enhances the role of the Interagency Coordinating Committee, requires biennial reporting on progress and budget needs, and broadens responsibilities for program agencies to share data, develop guidelines, and implement post-earthquake recovery-based performance objectives.
- 5Increased and targeted funding for key agencies: The bill authorizes multi-year funding for USGS, NSF, and NIST (fiscal years 2024–2028) with specific minimums and earmarks (e.g., at least $36 million for the Advanced National Seismic System from USGS funding) to ensure completion of critical seismic infrastructure and research initiatives.