WASHINGTON–A congressman from the Gulf Coast has introduced legislation to provide government loans homeowners could used to strengthen homes against natural disasters, drawing support from insurance industry groups representing both primary and reinsurance companies.

“As people from the Gulf Coast and those states bordering the Atlantic Ocean are only too well aware, this year's hurricane season officially began in recent days,” Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said today in introducing the Property Mitigation Assistance Act, or HR 6424.

The legislation being proposed would establish a mitigation loan program within the Federal Emergency Management Agency to promote measures to make homes better able to withstand natural disasters. The bill would provide for grants of at least $500,000 to individual states based on their risk of natural disaster, and would authorize $200 million for each of the fiscal years 2009 through 2014 for the program.