wa-law.org > bill > 2023-24 > HB 1728 > Original Bill
Washington state residents have been increasingly impacted by natural disasters such as floods, landslides, wildfires, earthquakes, and the COVID-19 pandemic and they continue to be at risk from these and other natural disasters, with communities of color and vulnerable populations disproportionately impacted. The legislature finds that it is critical to better prepare Washington for disasters and to mitigate the impacts with coordinated resiliency strategies. The legislature further finds a resilient Washington increases quality of life for Washingtonians while every one dollar spent on mitigation saves six dollars spent on recovery. To address this critical need, the legislature intends to implement a statewide resiliency program for the benefit of all Washingtonians while conserving expenditures by both public and private sectors.
The emergency management division within the department shall develop and administer a statewide resiliency program. The program should include:
Methods for ensuring ongoing coordination of state and local resiliency and response activities, including:
Developing, administering, tracking, and communicating progress of overall resiliency efforts;
Coordinating funding to maximize federal, state, local, and private investments;
Serving as a public and private resiliency resource center; and
Enhancing interagency collaboration, education, and outreach programs;
A coordinated long-term resiliency strategy for addressing the impacts of all hazards, both natural and human-caused, including:
Developing, coordinating, and communicating resiliency initiatives and projects across state agencies and local governments, including initiatives and projects supporting climate resiliency;
Conducting policy research and recommendations related to enhancing resiliency;
Coordinating research, data collection, and analysis;
Researching economic tools to address resiliency; and
Recommending investments to mitigate risks from all hazards; and
Support functions to agencies, departments, tribes, and other stakeholders to develop solutions that improve the resiliency of the state's waters, forests, and other vital ecosystems to the impacts of climate change, and increase their carbon pollution reduction capacity through sequestration, storage, and overall ecosystem integrity.
For purposes of this section, "resiliency" means the ability to prepare, mitigate, plan for, withstand, recover from, and more successfully adapt to adverse events and changing conditions, and reorganize in an equitable manner that results in a new and better condition.