Flooding — which has gotten increasingly severe in an era of extreme weather — costs the U.S. economy an estimated $179.8 to $496 billion per year in 2023 dollars, according to new data from Democrats on the Senate Joint Economic Committee.

"Communities in New Mexico and across the country feel the economic impacts of flooding directly. This report helps quantify the magnitude of that impact and the urgent need for climate mitigation and resilience efforts to help reduce it. Democrats have made vital investments to strengthen our infrastructure and lessen climate-exacerbated disasters, but more action is needed still.”

The session will mark the first time the Joint Economic Committee — one of only a handful of bicameral congressional panels — has taken up the issue. It’s another sign of how enmeshed the topic has become with broader policy debates on Capitol Hill.

Washington, D.C.—Today, Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Chairman of the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee (JEC), released the following statement after the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that nonfarm payroll employment increased by 175,000 in April and the unemployment rate ticked up to 3.9%. The unemployment rate was 5.6% for Black workers, 4.8% for Hispanic workers, 3.5% for white workers, 2.8% for Asian workers, and 4.7% (not seasonally adjusted) for American Indian and Alaska Native workers.