Congress OKs $50B Climate Bill After Deadly Midwest Floods

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers from both parties approved the Climate Resilience Bill on Thursday, authorizing $50 billion over five years for flood barriers, levee reinforcements and upgrades to roads, bridges and utilities battered by intensifying storms. The legislation, spurred by catastrophic flooding across Iowa, Illinois and Missouri in late April, allocates $20 billion directly to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for priority projects, including $8.7 billion for the PROTECT grant program to safeguard transportation networks.[1] Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., flanked President Biden at the White House signing ceremony scheduled for Friday, calling the bill a 'bipartisan bulwark' against rising disaster costs now topping $165 billion annually nationwide.[1] The Midwest deluge, fueled by 20 inches of rain in 48 hours — shattering records set in 1993 — killed 15 people, including eight in Iowa alone, and forced the evacuation of 25,000 residents from Davenport to Peoria. Damage estimates exceed $12 billion, with submerged farmland, collapsed highways and overwhelmed wastewater systems compounding the chaos. 'These floods aren't acts of God anymore; they're warnings we ignored too long,' said Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., who championed related resilience measures in her Built to Last Act introduced earlier this year.[2] Building on the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act's $34.7 billion flood resilience investments — which boosted FEMA's BRIC program by $1 billion and Flood Mitigation Assistance by $3.5 billion — the new bill triples down with $10 billion for community grants and $2 billion for coastal and wetland restoration via NOAA programs.[1] It also launches $500 million in resilience accelerators, regional hubs offering technical aid to small towns vying for funds, and a $500 million STORM Act revolving loan program for states.[1] Supporters project the package will generate 2 million jobs, drawing on Johns Hopkins research showing every $1 billion in resilience spending yields up to 40,000 positions in construction and engineering.[1] Critics, including some Republicans, decried the price tag amid $35 trillion national debt but relented after negotiations trimmed non-flood provisions. The bill now heads to Biden's desk, with first grants rolling out by fall to rebuild smarter in flood-prone zones.