National Landslide Preparedness Act Reauthorization Act of 2025
What changed between versions
Landslide program funding increased from $25 million to $35 million, with a new requirement that at least $10 million be used for purchase, deployment, and repair of landslide early warning systems in high-risk areas.
New Section 5 amends the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 to increase annual water data funding from $10 million (FY2009-2028) to $30 million (FY2026-2033), adds groundwater quality assessments for permafrost thaw, and establishes priority site criteria based on drought, reservoir reliance, hydrologic storage, and flooding.
Authorization period for the landslide hazards reduction program extended from 2024 to 2030. The 3D elevation program authorization extended from 2024 to 2034.
Regional partnerships expanded from being limited to 'the State of Alaska and other regions, as the Secretary determines to be appropriate' to 'each region in which the Secretary determines that there is a high landslide hazard,' making them a nationwide requirement rather than an Alaska-centered program.
Entirely new Section 4 establishes a Next Generation Water Observing System within USGS, providing real-time water quantity and quality data to support flood and drought forecasts, emergency management, and drought evaluation. Authorized at $30 million for FY2026 for 10 initial basins, remaining available until expended.
New deficit reduction provision requires that funds used by an agency to carry out the landslide section may only come from amounts authorized to be appropriated to that agency, and any cancelled appropriations must be transferred to the Treasury general fund for deficit reduction.
Native Hawaiian organizations and Tribal organizations are added as eligible partners throughout the bill - in community preparedness activities, debris flow early warning systems, emergency response, advisory committees, grant programs, significant event responses, and water data programs. Institutions of higher education with landslide expertise are also added as eligible grant recipients.
Emergency response activities now include a new purpose: improving real-time risk management during landslide events caused by hydrology changes, atmospheric river flooding events, geologic activity, data-poor areas, and thawing permafrost and glacial retreat causing slope destabilization.
Grant programs now include a new priority for regions that have recently experienced loss of life due to landslides, and the scope of eligible activities expanded from 'research, map, assess' to 'research, map, assess, monitor.'
The national strategy requirement is restructured to explicitly require an assessment of risks posed by atmospheric river flooding events and extreme precipitation events to life and property safety with respect to landslide hazards.
