The Climate Playbook—Replay contains information on recent climate action in Congress, including bill updates, Committee and House votes, and new bills reflected in The Climate Playbook.

Playbook Bills that Passed the House

H.R. 1984 - DISASTER Act

• H.R. 1984 requires the Office of Management and Budget to submit an annual report to Congress on the amount of disaster-related spending by the federal government. The report must include all federal obligations related to disaster response, recovery, mitigation efforts, and administrative costs associated with these activities for specified agencies and programs.

H.R. 1768 - Diesel Emissions Reduction Act of 2019

• H.R.1768 reauthorizes subtitle G of title VII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which relates to diesel emissions reduction and enables upgrades to the millions of diesel engines on our waterways, rails, and roadways, with the goal of improving air quality and living conditions for our communities.

H.R. 1420 -  Energy Efficient Government Technology Act 

• H.R. 1420 promotes energy efficiency via information and computing technologies. Data centers and servers, computers, and smart devices are examples of some of the most energy-intensive information technologies. The federal government consumes billions of kWh hours using these devices and demand is only increasing. It directs the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director, Secretary of Energy and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop an implementation strategy for the maintenance, purchase, and use of energy-efficient and energy-saving information technologies by the federal government. The bill also creates Data Center Energy Practitioner Programs, Open Data Initiatives, International Specifications and Metrics, Data Center Utilization Metric, Protection of Proprietary Information.

H.R. 1146 - Arctic Cultural and Coastal Plain Protection Act

• H.R. 1146 repeals a provision of The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (H.R. 1) from the 115th Congress (2017-2018) which permitted 2 lease sales of about 400,000 acres of oil and gas development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) for the first time since the Interior Department established the ANWR. 

H.R. 1941 - Coastal and Marine Economies Protection Act

• H.R. 1941 prohibits any future leases for oil and gas drilling off the United States’ Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

H.R. 205 - Protecting and Securing Florida’s Coastline Act of 2019

• H.R. 205 makes a moratorium on offshore leasing in the eastern Gulf of Mexico permanent.The 2006 Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act prohibited offshore leasing in the eastern Gulf of Mexico (off the coast of Florida) through June 2022 because drilling on Florida’s coast affected its tourism and fishing industries.

Bills Added to the Playbook

H.R. 4307 - Build More Housing Near Transit Act

• H.R. 4307 amends Section 5309 of Title 49 in the U.S. Code, which governs the application process for Capital Investment Grants (CIG). Specifically, this bill affects the New Starts program (light, rapid, commuter rail projects that cost more than $300 million) within CIG. It adds real estate to the consideration of economic development and requires real estate feasibility to be evaluated with housing feasibility assessments. In addition to a financial commitment, it requires a commitment to adjust local land use policies to accommodate affordable and market-rate housing development associated with the project. Changes should consider: density, development certainty, market interest, exemption of minimum parking requirements, by-right development, agency ownership of land, and regional growth goals

H.R. 4230 - Clean Industrial Technology Act of 2019

• H.R. 4230 helps to support research and demonstration of innovative technologies to reduce emissions from steel and cement production, chemicals production, and others. It is aimed at establishing a crosscutting program of research, development, demonstration, and commercialization of technologies capable of achieving the simultaneous goals of reducing emissions while increasing technological and economic competitiveness of industrial and manufacturing processes in the United States.

H.R. 3110  - Climate Security Intelligence Act of 2019

• H.R. 3110 establishes the Climate Security Intelligence Center at Office of the Director of National Intelligence to identify and analyze existing and future conflicts and threats that are the result of climate change and requires the center to submit recurring reports to Congress on those threats.

H.R. 3423 - National Green Bank Act

• H.R. 3423 creates a National Green Bank that would be capitalized by an initial sale of $10 billion in Green Bonds, with options for direct congressional appropriations or further bond sales. In turn, it would capitalize eligible green banks set up by states, counties, and municipalities. These local green banks would be able to make financing in the form of direct support or credit enhancement for eligible energy efficiency, solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, hydropower, fuel cell, and alternative fuel vehicles and infrastructure projects, among others. The bill contains funding for states without existing green banks to set them up. These banks have been successful at the state level in reducing emissions and creating jobs.

H.R. 3872 - National Flood Insurance Program Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2019

• H.R. 3872 reauthorizes the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) for five years through September 30, 2024 and make important reforms to the program. It would ensure flood insurance is affordable for policyholders by capping annual premium increases to 9%, capping Write Your Own (WYO) compensation at 22.46% of written premiums, and creating an affordability assistance fund within the Treasury to aid any policyholders whose housing costs exceed 30percent of their adjusted gross income due to NFIP premiums. The bill also focuses on proactive mitigation efforts by investing in new Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology for more accurate mapping of flood risks.

H.R. 4093 - National Oceans and Coastal Security Improvements Act of 2019

• H.R. 4093 will support coastal communities’ ability to prepare for and respond to a variety of coastal threats, including extreme weather events, climate hazards and changing ocean conditions by improving coastal infrastructure and supporting coastal research, resiliency, conservation and restoration work.

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