PRIA, Government Policy, Made Personal

Summary

Raise how much flood insurance can pay, speed up finding and sharing information about flood-prone places, make states and local governments join the federal flood insurance program and adopt enforceable flood-plain rules to get future federal money, and require people or institutions getting federal help to buy flood insurance when their property is in a special flood hazard area. Congress found that flood and mudslide losses are growing because more people and buildings are put in risky places, federal money affects where development happens, federally funded property and bank loans are at risk, flood victims suffer big losses and lives are lost, and it’s important for people in flood areas to be able to buy enough insurance.

Title 42, §4002

The Public Health and Welfare, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The Congress finds that—

(1)annual losses throughout the Nation from floods and mudslides are increasing at an alarming rate, largely as a result of the accelerating development of, and concentration of population in, areas of flood and mudslide hazards;

(2)the availability of Federal loans, grants, guaranties, insurance, and other forms of financial assistance are often determining factors in the utilization of land and the location and construction of public and of private industrial, commercial, and residential facilities;

(3)property acquired or constructed with grants or other Federal assistance may be exposed to risk of loss through floods, thus frustrating the purpose for which such assistance was extended;

(4)Federal instrumentalities insure or otherwise provide financial protection to banking and credit institutions whose assets include a substantial number of mortgage loans and other indebtedness secured by property exposed to loss and damage from floods and mudslides;

(5)the Nation cannot afford the tragic losses of life caused annually by flood occurrences, nor the increasing losses of property suffered by flood victims, most of whom are still inadequately compensated despite the provision of costly disaster relief benefits; and

(6)it is in the public interest for persons already living in flood-prone areas to have both an opportunity to purchase flood insurance and access to more adequate limits of coverage, so that they will be indemnified, for their losses in the event of future flood disasters.

(b)The purpose of this Act, therefore, is to—

(1)substantially increase the limits of coverage authorized under the national flood insurance program;

(2)provide for the expeditious identification of, and the dissemination of information concerning, flood-prone areas;

(3)require States or local communities, as a condition of future Federal financial assistance, to participate in the flood insurance program and to adopt adequate flood plan ordinances with effective enforcement provisions consistent with Federal standards to reduce or avoid future flood losses; and

(4)require the purchase of flood insurance by property owners who are being assisted by Federal programs or by federally supervised, regulated, or insured agencies or institutions in the acquisition or improvement of land or facilities located or to be located in identified areas having special flood hazards.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

This Act, referred to in subsec. (b), means Pub. L. 93–234, Dec. 31, 1973, 87 Stat. 975, known as the Flood Disaster Protection Act of 1973. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see

Short Title

of 1973 Amendment note set out under section 4001 of this title and Tables. Codification Section was enacted as part of the Flood Disaster Protection Act of 1973, and not as part of the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 which comprises this chapter.

§4002 Additional Congressional Findings and Declaration of Purpose