Federal disaster aid gets a boost for hospitals, fire stations, tribal communities
S. 3403 — Building Resilience and Stronger Communities Act · Filed by Jack Reed (D-RI) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Dec 9, 2025 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill amends federal disaster relief law to increase the federal government's cost-sharing for community resilience projects. It raises the federal contribution to 90% (or higher) for small mitigation projects under $1 million, expands eligibility to include critical facilities like hospitals and fire stations, and explicitly includes Indian Tribes as eligible recipients for disaster preparedness assistance alongside states and local governments.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core function is to increase federal cost-sharing for pre-disaster mitigation projects and extend eligibility to tribal governments. It is straightforward public infrastructure legislation with no hidden mechanisms or narrow beneficiaries.
What the text implies
- Increased federal cost-share may incentivize states and localities to pursue more mitigation projects, potentially shifting long-term disaster costs from local budgets to federal appropriations.
- Explicit tribal inclusion may require federal agencies to develop new administrative processes and funding mechanisms for tribal governments, creating implementation complexity.
- The 3–5% national public infrastructure mitigation funding floor (Section 4) may create a permanent baseline appropriation demand that grows with inflation.
Who it affects
Ordinary citizens benefit from increased federal funding for disaster preparedness and resilience infrastructure—hospitals, fire stations, schools, and power systems are more likely to survive disasters when hardened. The bill also extends these protections to tribal communities, which have historically been underserved in federal disaster assistance.
Who stands to gain
- construction and engineering firms
- disaster mitigation contractors
- infrastructure consulting services
Named in the bill
Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, Indian Tribes, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), States and local governments, Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Dec 9, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Dec 9, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. Those filings disclosed $330,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 8 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Jack Reed, the sponsor, reported $1,152,500 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Edison International — $330,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jan 16, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the full bill text on Jul 5, 2026; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jan 16, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Federal disaster aid gets a boost for hospitals, fire stations, tribal communities” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s3403 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.