DON’T TELL THE GOP BASE – CONGRESS SPENT ON CLIMATE

Congress Actually Dealt with Climate Change in the 2016 Budget Bill. Really; It flew under the radar, but the approval of a new flood standard for federal projects means the federal government took a big step.

Katherine Bagley, January 19, 2016 (Inside Climate News)

“President Obama's plan to safeguard the nation from increasing flood risk due to climate change was quietly green-lighted by Congress last month in the 2016 omnibus budget bill…[It was] one of the only actions Congress took on global warming in all of 2015, and it came as a surprise considering the longstanding opposition from Republicans. And it is a critical one…It will impact billions of dollars of federally funded construction projects across the country, from highways and bridges to hospitals and housing complexes, at a time when flooding in the U.S. is getting worse every year because of climate change…Obama's plan, executive order No. 13960, mandates that all federally funded projects located in a floodplain be built higher and stronger than previously required [to the standard of a 500-year event]. It is the first update to the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard since the policy was created 38 years ago. It applies to both new construction and rebuilding following a disaster…[Congress approved the program in a roundabout way by saying no federal funds can be used] but then adds the qualifier statement "other than for—", and lists nearly all of the activities in Executive Order 13690…Now that the standard has funding, government agencies will develop guidelines for implementing the new policy…” click here for more

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