Committee approves bill to codify resiliency council and fund statewide risk assessments from insurance fees

Representative Brown told the committee SP137 would codify a resiliency council—now established by executive order—and create a chief resiliency officer to coordinate EMA, agriculture, insurance and law enforcement for long- and short-term emergency planning (SEG 151–172). He said the council is increasingly important given recent changes in federal emergency response roles (SEG 175–177).

An amendment read into the record by "Eric" revised statutory language to add "risk and vulnerability assessment" obligations and altered the distribution of insurance license fees to provide funding: beginning in fiscal year 2028, $1,000,000 of the insurance-fee distribution would be credited annually to an Alabama Resilience Council Fund and $1,500,000 to a risk and insurance research fund, with remaining funds allocated per statute (SEG 186–206, SEG 196–203).

The committee adopted the amendment by voice vote and then voted to give the bill a favorable report as amended (SEG 210–236). Representative Brown thanked the members and indicated the bill was coordinated with the insurance committee's house version (SEG 151–159). The amendment and bill were recorded as adopted in committee and will proceed to the next legislative step.