National Landslide Preparedness Act Reauthorization Act of 2025

The bill would reauthorize the U.S. Geological Survey's National Landslide Hazards Reduction Program through fiscal year 2030 and increase its funding level from $25 million to $35 million, requiring at least $10 million to be used for deploying and repairing landslide early warning systems in high-risk areas. It would expand the program's national strategy, hazard database, community preparedness resources, and emergency response activities to account for atmospheric rivers and extreme precipitation events, and would extend program eligibility and consultation roles to tribal organizations and Native Hawaiian organizations. It would also establish regional landslide research partnerships, including in Alaska, and add NASA to the interagency coordinating committee on landslide hazards.

The bill would additionally reauthorize the USGS's 3D Elevation Program through fiscal year 2030 and require integration of enhanced, processed elevation data. It would amend a separate flood-forecasting law to define atmospheric river and extreme precipitation terms and require NOAA's precipitation frequency estimates to account for hurricanes and these events. It does not create any new stand-alone agency or program outside these existing authorities.

The U.S. Geological Survey, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and NASA would carry out expanded duties. State, local, and tribal governments, Native Hawaiian organizations, institutions of higher education, and communities in landslide-prone or atmospheric-river-affected regions, including Alaska, would be eligible for grants, partnerships, and early warning systems.

Communities at risk of landslides, particularly those affected by atmospheric rivers, extreme rainfall, or thawing permafrost, would gain a better-funded early warning system and more federal research support. Tribal and Native Hawaiian organizations would gain formal access to program benefits, and agencies would have clearer, longer-term funding to plan monitoring and response efforts through 2030.

USGS would update its national landslide strategy and hazards database to incorporate atmospheric river and extreme precipitation risk factors, and would use at least $10 million of program funds each year for early warning system purchase, deployment, and repair in high-risk areas. USGS would establish regional partnerships with qualifying organizations or universities, starting with Alaska, to coordinate monitoring and research, and could consult with institutions of higher education and the private sector on grants and emergency response. NOAA would incorporate hurricane, atmospheric river, and extreme precipitation data into its precipitation frequency estimates, and NASA would join the existing interagency coordinating committee.