HR5650-119

What This Bill Does

The Weatherization Resilience and Adaptation Program Act builds a federal grant program for climate-risk upgrades to low-income homes, affordable rental housing, multifamily subsidized housing, and manufactured home communities. The findings say climate-driven hazards such as floods, wildfires, landslides, extreme heat, wind, and atmospheric rivers hit low-income and frontline communities hardest. Eligible program participants are states, federally recognized Indian Tribes, and Native Hawaiian organizations. They can receive Interior grants to help eligible property owners make dwellings and property more resilient, including accessibility modifications and natural solutions, in areas where climate change makes hazards more likely. Eligible owners include low-income owners, owners of affordability-restricted property for at least five years, owners of multifamily properties where more than half of units are occupied by subsidized-rent residents under covered housing programs, and manufactured home community owners. Interior must issue rules in consultation with HUD, HHS, EPA, FEMA, NIST, and other agencies, set standards, guidance, audits, reporting, performance targets, and spending thresholds. NIST must publish resilience and adaptation standards within one year, considering building-material costs, fair labor standards, local climate impacts, geography, topography, weatherization needs, and natural solutions. The bill authorizes $250 million per year for Interior for fiscal years 2026 through 2031 and $2 million per year for NIST for fiscal years 2026 through 2028.

Who Benefits and How

Low-income homeowners benefit because grant funds can pay for resilience and adaptation work they could not otherwise afford. Affordable housing residents benefit when property owners receive funds to reduce flood, wildfire, heat, wind, and other climate-driven risks. State weatherization agencies benefit from a new Interior grant stream for resilience upgrades and outreach. Federally recognized Tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations benefit from direct eligibility to administer grants in vulnerable communities.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Interior grant program staff must create the program, review applications, oversee grants, set reporting rules, and manage $250 million annual authorizations. Eligible property owners must comply with affordability, reporting, application, and project conditions to receive assistance. NIST standards staff must develop resilience and adaptation standards within one year and manage $2 million annual authorizations. Federal taxpayers fund the Interior grant program and NIST standards work over the authorized fiscal years.

Key Provisions

• Establishes an Interior grant program for climate resilience and adaptation upgrades to eligible dwellings and property.
• Provides eligibility for states, federally recognized Indian Tribes, Native Hawaiian organizations, low-income owners, affordable-housing owners, subsidized multifamily owners, and manufactured home community owners.
• Requires applications, online and paper access, outreach, prioritization by disaster risk and means, reporting, and limits on added procedural burdens.
• Requires Interior rulemaking, audits, annual reports, performance targets, spending thresholds, and interagency consultation.
• Requires NIST resilience and adaptation standards within one year.
• Appropriates authorization levels of $250 million annually for Interior and $2 million annually for NIST over specified fiscal years.