New bipartisan flood insurance legislation introduced in the House
The Repeatedly Flooded Communities Preparation Act aims to reduce repeat flood claims within the National Flood Insurance Program.
New bipartisan legislation on flood insurance was introduced in the House last week.
The Repeatedly Flooded Communities Preparation Act (RFCPA) seeks to reduce the number of repeat flood claims and loss properties within the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
Introduced by Reps. David Kustoff (R-Tenn.) and Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and sponsored by Reps. Ben McAdams (D-Utah) and Ann Wagner (R-Mo.), the bill would require communities with 50 or more repetitive loss structures and that have seen NFIP claims or received Stafford Act assistance in the past decade to identify mitigation strategies to address repeatedly flooded areas, such as drainage improvements or voluntary buyout programs.
As a companion to S. 2088, RFCPA also asks such communities to submit action plans to reduce flood risks to the administrator of FEMA. Communities that fail to comply or implement such plans could be subject to sanctions, including reductions in financial assistance.
Industry reactions
Non-profit public policy group The R Street praised the legislation.
“The Repeatedly Flooded Communities Preparation Act would support crucial community-focused efforts to address the explosion of repetitive loss properties insured by the NFIP, which still owes more than $20 billion to taxpayers even after having $16 billion of its debt canceled in 2017,” R.J. Lehmann, R Street’s director of finance, insurance and trade policy, said in a statement.
“Investing in mitigation is a far more cost-effective use of taxpayer dollars than continuing to pay out claims and extend disaster assistance to the same places over and over again,” Lehmann added. “This legislation takes a carrot-and-stick approach to the problem of repeat flood losses, facilitating access to mitigation funding for communities that take the initiative, with potentially significant financial consequences for those that do not.”
Repetitive loss properties
As of 2015, FEMA had identified roughly 160,000 repetitive loss properties, defined as insured structures that have been paid two or more NFIP claims of more than $1,000 within any 10-year period. Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York and Texas lead the nation with between 10,000 and 25,000 repetitive loss properties each.
Repetitive loss properties may be eligible for flood-mitigation assistance from the federal Repetitive Flood Claims (RFC) grant program. Among the program’s priorities is to buy out structures that meet the more stringent definition of severe repetitive loss properties – those that have had four or more claims of more than $5,000 or at least two claims that cumulatively exceed the building’s value.
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