SAFE Act

Safeguarding America's Future and Environment Act or the SAFE Act

The bill requires the development of an integrated national approach to help fish, wildlife, and plants adapt to extreme weather changes and climate change.

Specifically, the bill requires the President to establish an interagency National Fish, Wildlife, and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy Joint Implementation Working Group. The working group must adopt the 2013 National Fish, Wildlife, and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy, which addresses the effects of extreme weather and climate change on fish, wildlife, and plants.

After the Committee on Earth and Environmental Sciences releases a periodic scientific assessment required under the U.S. Global Change Research Program, the working group must use sound science to review and revise the strategy to incorporate new information and advances in the development of strategies to help fish, wildlife, and plants adapt. Each federal agency must integrate the strategy into agency plans, environmental reviews, and programs.

The Department of the Interior must establish a National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center to assess and develop scientific information, tools, strategies, and techniques to support the working group and other interested parties in addressing the effects of extreme weather and climate change.

Interior must establish an Advisory Committee on Climate Change and Natural Resource Sciences to advise the working group.