Nearly 75 percent of the U.S. could experience a damaging earthquake in the next century. But many communities across America are not prepared to deal with this threat, and earthquakes cost the U.S. on average $14.7 billion annually. Accordingly, a 2022 Government Accountability Office report recommended that a national risk assessment be performed to identify gaps in earthquake preparedness and hazard mitigation by states, localities, territories, and Tribes.

Earthquakes threaten not only lives and buildings, but also critical services such as power, water, communications, and transportation. These services, also referred to as “lifelines”, must be restored as quickly as possible following a natural disaster to enable other parts of a recovery effort. The National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program – first authorized by Congress in 1977 to understand and reduce earthquake hazards – has primarily focused on restoring buildings and other physical structures following an earthquake. But there has not been similar attention to lifeline services. Setting standards for lifeline restoration would enable communities and businesses to recover from an earthquake or other disasters more quickly.

To address these gaps, the Earthquake Resilience Act would:

• Direct federal agencies to conduct a national risk assessment of earthquake resilience
• Require the National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program to support development of standards and guidelines for lifeline infrastructure in coordination with a national lifeline infrastructure organization
• Direct the U.S. Geological Survey to incorporate a technology (geodetic networks) in seismic monitoring that can improve prediction of aftershocks and large magnitude earthquakes

This bill has been endorsed by the National Institute of Building Sciences, BuildStrong America, ImageCat, Central U.S. Earthquake Consortium, National Society of Professional Engineers, and American Society of Civil Engineers.

The bill as introduced can be found here or on Congress.gov.