National Flood Insurance Program Consultant Accountability Act of 2021

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 4091 To authorize the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agen- cy to terminate certain contracts on the basis of detrimental conduct to the National Flood Insurance Program, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JUNE 23, 2021 Mr. HIGGINS of Louisiana introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services A BILL To authorize the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to terminate certain contracts on the basis of detrimental conduct to the National Flood Insurance Program, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘National Flood Insur- 4 ance Program Consultant Accountability Act of 2021’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:44 Jul 10, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4091.IH H4091 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 4091 IH SEC. 2. TERMINATION OF CERTAIN CONTRACTS UNDER 1 THE NATIONAL FLOOD INSURANCE PRO- 2 GRAM. 3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Part C of chapter II of the Na- 4 tional Flood Insurance Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 4081 et 5 seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following: 6 ‘‘SEC. 1349. TERMINATION OF CONTRACTS. 7 ‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section— 8 ‘‘(1) the term ‘covered entity’ means any attor- 9 ney, law firm, consultant, or third-party company 10 that provides services to a Write Your Own com- 11 pany; and 12 ‘‘(2) the term ‘Write Your Own company’ 13 means a company participating in the cooperative 14 undertaking between the insurance industry and the 15 Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration 16 that allows participating property and casualty in- 17 surance companies to write and service standard 18 flood insurance policies. 19 ‘‘(b) TERMINATION.— 20 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other 21 provision of law, the Administrator may terminate a 22 contract or other agreement between a covered enti- 23 ty and a Write Your Own company if the Adminis- 24 trator— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:44 Jul 10, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4091.IH H4091 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 4091 IH ‘‘(A) determines that the covered entity 1 has engaged in conduct that is detrimental to 2 the flood insurance program authorized under 3 chapter I; and 4 ‘‘(B) not later than 14 days before termi- 5 nating the contract or other agreement, pro- 6 vides notice to the covered entity of the termi- 7 nation. 8 ‘‘(2) APPEAL.—The Administrator shall estab- 9 lish a process for a covered entity to appeal a termi- 10 nation of a contract or other agreement under para- 11 graph (1). 12 ‘‘(3) EARLY TERMINATION PAYOUTS.—The Ad- 13 ministrator or a Write Your Own company is not re- 14 quired to make any early termination payout to a 15 covered entity with respect to a contract or agree- 16 ment with the Write Your Own company that the 17 Administrator terminates under paragraph (1).’’. 18 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE; APPLICABILITY.—The amend- 19 ment made by subsection (a) shall— 20 (1) take effect on the date of enactment of this 21 Act; and 22 (2) apply to any contract or other agreement 23 between a covered entity and a Write Your Own 24 company (as those terms are defined in section 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:44 Jul 10, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4091.IH H4091 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 4091 IH 1349(a) of the National Flood Insurance Act of 1 1968, as added by subsection (a)) entered into on or 2 after the date of enactment of this Act. 3 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:44 Jul 10, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H4091.IH H4091 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS