Close to 75 million people in 39 states face some risk from earthquakes. Given the potentially huge costs associated with a large, damaging earthquake in the United States, an ongoing issue for Congress is whether the federally supported earthquake programs are appropriate for the earthquake risk. This book discusses the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) the multi-agency federal program to reduce the nation's risk from earthquakes; earthquake hazards and risk in the U.S.; federal programs that support earthquake monitoring; the U.S. capability to detect earthquakes and issue notifications and warnings and federally supported research to improve the fundamental scientific understanding of earthquakes with a goal of reducing U.S. vulnerability.