The federal government must invest in resilience and make governmentwide plans to manage climate change risks in order to prevent billions of dollars in future disaster aid costs, according to a report released by the Government Accountability Office June 11. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government has spent $450 billion in disaster aid since 2005, and vulnerability to climate change will further impact federal disaster aid, federal flood and crop insurance programs and federal property and land \u2013 posing a huge hit to the federal budget. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The problem, however, is that the government does not have important \u201cinformation needed by policymakers to help understand the budgetary impacts\u201d of climate change necessary for them to anticipate changes and make informed spending decisions, said the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government \u201chad no comprehensive strategic approach for identifying, prioritizing, and implementing investments for disaster resilience,\u201d according to the report, and the lack of strategic governmentwide planning is \u201cpartly because of the inherently complicated and crosscutting nature of the issue.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, \u201cthe federal budget does not generally account for disaster assistance by Congress or long-term impacts of climate change on existing federal infrastructure and programs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also, the federal crop and flood insurance programs \u201cwere not designed to generate sufficient funds to fully cover all losses and expenses,\u201d and the programs need budget authority from Congress to operate. As of April, the National Flood Insurance Program is $21 billion in debt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The federal government also owns and operates hundreds of thousands of facilities and millions of acres of land that could be affected by climate change. Just last year, two military installations \u2014 Camp Lejeune in North Carolina and Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida \u2014 were both damaged by hurricanes, which cost billions of dollars in repairs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The federal government does include some \u201cindividual agency efforts that could help build resilience within existing programs or projects,\u201d according to the report. For example, \u201cthe U.S. military integrates climate risks into its analysis, plans and programs, with particular attention paid to climate effects on force readiness, military bases, and training ranges.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also, \u201celevating homes and strengthened building codes in Texas and Florida prevented greater damages during the 2017 hurricane season.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Congress also passed the Disaster Recovery Reform Act in 2018, \u201cwhich could improve state and local resilience to disasters.\u201d However, \u201cit is too early to tell what impact the implementation [DRRA] will have on state and local resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the report, the government must develop a strategic and cohesive plan to \u201cmanage risks across the entire range of related federal activities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As of December 2018, 25 of GAO\u2019s 62 recommendations to reduce federal fiscal risk remain open. Recommendations included providing policymakers with the best possible information and providing \u201cbest-available forward-looking climate information to organizations that develop design standards and building codes to enhance infrastructure resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The House Budget Committee held a hearing the same day the report was released where they discussed the risk of climate change on federal finances and the U.S. economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cClimate change is an environmental issue. It\u2019s a public health issue. It\u2019s a national security issue. And, as we\u2019ll talk about today, it\u2019s increasingly an economic and fiscal issue,\u201d Committee Chairman John Yarmuth, D-Ky., said in his opening statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe only people who fail to understand the seriousness of climate change are the Trump administration and some of our Republican colleagues,\u201d Yarmuth said. \u201cIf they are not moved by environmental, health and security consequences, I hope the economic costs and the impact on the federal budget will get their attention \u2014 because we cannot afford to wait for them to catch up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe effects of climate change have already and will continue to pose risks that can create fiscal exposure across the federal government and this exposure will continue to increase,\u201d J. Alfredo G\u00f3mez, a director in GAO\u2019s Natural Resources and Environment team, said in his testimony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, criticized the Democrats for not passing a budget and asked Chairman Yarmuth \u201chow can we have a discussion serious discussion about climate change on this committee without addressing the primary plank of the platform that you and your colleagues have offered \u2014 the Green New Deal \u2014 to resolve climate change?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yarmuth noted that \u201cthere are 11 committees that have jurisdiction over [Green New Deal] legislation and we\u2019re not one of them\u201d and that the Green New Deal does not have the support of a majority of Democrats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The impacts of climate change could drive up the money needed for future federal budgets, and Congress lacks important information to deal with it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":37668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":40,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[104,65,106,31,15,33,9,40],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3142],"class_list":["post-13796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acquisition-update","category-budget","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-management","category-newsletters","category-federal-oversight","category-watchdogs"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"BRIE7IY6JNE33JZYMUMLLTZOV4","arc_canonical_url":"\/federal-oversight\/watchdogs\/2019\/06\/14\/the-budget-could-take-a-huge-hit-from-climate-change\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n