After a federally declared disaster, FEMA can help communities rebuild — but current law doesn't clearly authorize using that money to make electric grids more resilient against future disasters. This bill would explicitly allow FEMA to fund hazard mitigation for electric utilities as part of disaster relief, including relocating power lines underground, reinforcing infrastructure against storms, and installing backup generation systems. It targets a gap that becomes obvious every hurricane season: communities rebuild their power grid to the same vulnerable standard, only to lose it again in the next storm.
Congressional Summary
Promoting Opportunities to Widen Electrical Resilience Act of 2025 or the POWER Act of 2025This bill authorizes electric utilities receiving certain emergency assistance for the restoration of power to also carry out cost-effective hazard mitigation activities in combination with the power restoration activities. Additionally, the bill specifies that electric utilities receiving such assistance for a facility may, if otherwise eligible, also receive hazard mitigation assistance for the same facility under the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Public Assistance program.
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- Senate
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in Senate
- Action Date
- 2025-04-10
- Date Added
- 2026-04-14
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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