[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 9771 Introduced in House (IH)]
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118th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 9771
To amend the Research and Development, Competition, and Innovation Act
to support research into the effects of extreme weather on the
subsurface natural and built environment, to support engineering
standards and building codes for resilient designs against
multihazards, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
September 24, 2024
Ms. McClellan introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Research and Development, Competition, and Innovation Act
to support research into the effects of extreme weather on the
subsurface natural and built environment, to support engineering
standards and building codes for resilient designs against
multihazards, 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. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Building and Upgrading
Infrastructure for the Long Term Act'' or the ``BUILT Act''.
SEC. 2. SUBSURFACE ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT.
(a) In General.--Subtitle B of title II of division B of the
Research and Development, Competition, and Innovation Act (enacted as
part of division B of Public Law 117-167; 42 U.S.C. 18931 et seq.) is
amended by adding at the end the following new sections:
``SEC. 10236. SUBSURFACE ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT.
``(a) In General.--Subject to the availability of appropriations,
the Director shall support measurement research and testing to inform
the development of engineering standards, practices, and building codes
on the subsurface environment as such relate to the built environment.
``(b) Research Areas.--Research and testing under subsection (a)
may include the following:
``(1) Measuring, modeling, and predicting the properties of
subsurface materials of soil, rock, and groundwater elevations,
taking into consideration changing climate conditions.
``(2) Sensing technology for monitoring subsurface
infrastructure and phenomena, such as land subsidence, that may
affect subsurface infrastructure.
``(3) Risks to subsurface infrastructure integrity,
including subsurface infrastructure capacity, resulting from
changes in subsurface material properties associated with
climate conditions and other environmental variables.
``(4) Enhancing building design standards and best
practices related to the following:
``(A) Evaluation of subsurface material properties
and potential geological hazards that affect below-
ground infrastructure.
``(B) Design and retrofit of below-ground
infrastructure.
``(5) Other research areas determined appropriate by the
Director.
``(c) Consultation.--The Director shall carry out this section in
consultation with academia, the private sector, nonprofit
organizations, professional associations, and other appropriate
Federal, State, Tribal, territorial, and local entities.
``SEC. 10237. CLIMATE RESILIENCE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT.
``(a) In General.--Subject to the availability of appropriations,
the Director shall support measurement research and testing to inform
the development of engineering standards, practices, and building codes
for resilience of the built environment, which may include measurement
research and development for the following:
``(1) Future climate conditions, loads, and effects on
infrastructure.
``(2) Multihazard and cascading hazard risk and resilience
modeling and prediction.
``(3) Design standards and best practices for climate-
resilient infrastructure, including lifeline infrastructure.
``(4) Sensing technology for monitoring infrastructure
integrity.
``(5) Future climate effects on infrastructure capacity
over its life cycle.
``(b) Workshop on Multihazard Resilient Design Framework.--Not
later than two years after the date of the enactment of this section,
the Director shall convene, or enter into a cooperative agreement with
an appropriate nongovernmental organization to convene, a workshop
composed of subject matter experts, stakeholders, and partners from
Federal, State, Tribal, territorial, and local entities,
nongovernmental organizations, private sector entities, disaster
management professional associations, engineering professional
associations, professional construction and homebuilding industry
associations, and building code setting organizations to discuss a
framework for designing multihazard resilient buildings and
infrastructure, including identifying research and measurement needs
for the following:
``(1) Risk and resilience assessments and modeling,
including cascading hazards and interactions between multiple
hazards.
``(2) Functional recovery design.
``(3) Climate resilient design.
``(4) Analysis and retrofit of existing building and
infrastructure stock.
``(5) Financial tools for decision-support.
``(6) Other areas determined appropriate by the Director.
``(c) Report.--Not later than one year after the date on which the
workshop described in subsection (b) is completed, the Director shall
submit to Congress and make available to the public a report on the
findings of the workshop, including any recommendations for legislative
action that could strengthen the multihazard resilience of the United
States.
``(d) Consultation.--The Director shall carry out this section in
consultation with academia, the private sector, nonprofit
organizations, professional associations, and other appropriate Federal
agencies.
``(e) Definitions.--In this section:
``(1) Climate resilience.--The term `climate resilience'
has the meaning given the term in section 101(a) of title 10,
United States Code.
``(2) Lifeline infrastructure.--The term `lifeline
infrastructure' has the meaning given the term in section 4 of
the Earthquake Hazards Reduction Act of 1977 (42 U.S.C.
7703).''.
(b) Risk and Resilience Research.--Section 10351 of the Research
and Development, Competition, and Innovation Act (42 U.S.C. 19060) is
amended--
(1) in paragraph (4), by striking ``and'' after the
semicolon;
(2) in paragraph (5), by striking the period and inserting
``; and''; and
(3) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
``(6) multidisciplinary research to understand, model, and
predict subsurface geological phenomena related to climate
variations and the impact of such on infrastructure design and
operations, to manage risk and improve resiliency of the built
environment.''.
(c) Clerical Amendment.--The table of contents in section 1 of
Public Law 117-167 is amended by inserting after the item relating to
section 10235 the following new items:
``Sec. 10236. Subsurface environment research and development.
``Sec. 10237. Climate resilience research and development.''.
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