On 9 November 2026, AGU sent a letter to Congressional leadership urging immediate passage of five bipartisan natural hazards bills.

With the 119th Congress nearing its close, we write on behalf of the undersigned organizations to request prompt and final passage of the bipartisan natural hazards reauthorization bills that remain before you:

• • H.R. 5089 / S. 3923, Weather Act Reauthorization Act
  • H.R. 3168 / S. 320, National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program Reauthorization Act
  • H.R. 2250 / S. 1626, National Landslide Preparedness Act Reauthorization Act
  • H.R. 3176 / S. 1052 National Volcano Early Warning and Monitoring System Reauthorization Act
  • H.R. 4073 / S. 3881, Tsunami Warning, Research, and Education Act

With all of these authorities having lapsed, the federal government is running the nation’s weather, earthquake, landslide, volcano, and tsunami-hazard programs on outdated mandates rather than a clear, current charge from Congress. Agencies cannot plan multi-year monitoring investments, expand early-warning coverage, or modernize aging systems with confidence when their statutory footing is years out of date. Lapses in authorization can create uncertainty about the continuation of federal financial support. These essential programs are not optional when it comes to protecting lives and property in the fact of a natural disaster.

 

These programs are the nation’s early-warning infrastructure. A family on the West Coast receives a take shelter notice seconds before an earthquake. A river town receives an early warning before floodwaters reach Main Street, and a mountain community gets evacuated ahead of a post-wildfire debris flow. In Tornado Alley, an extra minute of warning is the difference between reaching shelter and being caught in the open. Farther out, a Gulf Coast port prepares days in advance of a hurricane, and an Aleutian fishing fleet is able to evacuate before ashfall, and volcanic gases threaten the waters they depend on. Reauthorization of each of these important bills keeps this infrastructure current by updating monitoring networks against modern hazards, closing coverage gaps in underserved regions, and ensuring warnings reach communities through readily available technology.

The cost of further delay compounds. The frequency of billion-dollar disasters is growing, and every dollar spent on mitigation and early warning saves far more in avoided damage, emergency response, and federal disaster relief later. Lapsed authorization creates uncertainty for programs that help limit future damage and federal costs. Timely reauthorization is the fiscally responsible choice.

We urge you to bring these bills to the floor and support their enactment before the end of this Congress. Timely action will give programs, and communities they support, the clarity they need to plan effectively.

 

Read the full letter and signatories here.