National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program Reauthorization Act of 2025

The bill would reauthorize funding for the U.S. Geological Survey's role in the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program through fiscal year 2030, authorizing about $83,403,000 per year, with at least $30 million annually earmarked for completing the Advanced National Seismic System. It would expand the earthquake early warning system to additional high-risk hazard areas, require the Survey to coordinate with the Federal Communications Commission so alerts broadcast as rapidly and reliably as possible and in the predominant languages of affected regions, require aftershock forecasts after significant earthquakes, and add tsunami and other secondary hazards to seismic hazard maps. It would also update program coordination requirements to include Tribal governments alongside state and local governments, add the Scientific Earthquake Studies Advisory Committee chair to the program's advisory committee, and require building-code development work to address post-earthquake reoccupancy and functional recovery of infrastructure. It does not create new agencies or programs beyond amending the existing 1977 law.

The U.S. Geological Survey, the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, along with state, local, and Tribal governments in earthquake-prone regions and residents of high-risk seismic areas who rely on early warning alerts.

Continued funding would let the Survey keep operating and expanding its seismic monitoring network and early warning system, potentially giving residents in high-risk areas more advance warning before shaking arrives. Faster, multilingual alert coordination with the FCC and new aftershock forecasting could improve public safety response after major earthquakes.

The U.S. Geological Survey would carry out the expanded duties—early warning expansion, aftershock forecasting, tsunami mapping—using the reauthorized annual appropriations, with a mandated minimum spending floor for the Advanced National Seismic System each fiscal year. It would coordinate with the Federal Communications Commission on alert broadcasting, with NOAA and FEMA on oceanic earthquake and tsunami response, and with state, local, and Tribal governments on early warning system improvements. The Interagency Coordinating Committee on Earthquake Hazards Reduction would continue biennial reporting requirements to Congress under the amended framework.