Repeatedly Flooded Communities Preparation Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 5776 To amend the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 to ensure community accountability for areas repetitively damaged by floods, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FEBRUARY 6, 2020 Mr. BLUMENAUER (for himself, Mr. KUSTOFF of Tennessee, Mrs. WAGNER, and Mr. MCADAMS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services A BILL To amend the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 to ensure community accountability for areas repetitively damaged by floods, 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 ‘‘Repeatedly Flooded 4 Communities Preparation Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:16 Feb 08, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5776.IH H5776 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 5776 IH SEC. 2. COMMUNITY ACCOUNTABILITY FOR REPETITIVELY 1 FLOODED AREAS. 2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 1361 of the National 3 Flood Insurance Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 4102) is amended 4 by adding at the end the following: 5 ‘‘(e) COMMUNITY ACCOUNTABILITY FOR REPEAT- 6 EDLY DAMAGED AREAS.— 7 ‘‘(1) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection— 8 ‘‘(A) the term ‘covered community’ means 9 a community— 10 ‘‘(i) that is participating in the na- 11 tional flood insurance program under sec- 12 tion 1315; and 13 ‘‘(ii) within which are located— 14 ‘‘(I) not fewer than 50 repetitive 15 loss structures with respect to each of 16 which, during any 10-year period, 17 there have been not fewer than 2 18 claims for payments under flood in- 19 surance coverage for a total amount 20 that is more than $1,000; 21 ‘‘(II) not fewer than 5 severe re- 22 petitive loss structures for which miti- 23 gation activities meeting the stand- 24 ards for approval under section 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:16 Feb 08, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5776.IH H5776 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 5776 IH 1366(c)(2)(A) have not been con- 1 ducted; or 2 ‘‘(III) a public facility or a pri- 3 vate nonprofit facility that has re- 4 ceived assistance for repair, restora- 5 tion, reconstruction, or replacement 6 under section 406 of the Robert T. 7 Stafford Disaster Relief and Emer- 8 gency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 9 5172) relating to more than 1 flood- 10 ing event during the most recent 10- 11 year period; 12 ‘‘(B) the terms ‘private nonprofit facility’ 13 and ‘public facility’ have the meanings given 14 those terms in section 102 of the Robert T. 15 Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assist- 16 ance Act (42 U.S.C. 5122); and 17 ‘‘(C) the term ‘severe repetitive loss struc- 18 ture’ has the meaning given the term in section 19 1366(h). 20 ‘‘(2) REQUIREMENTS FOR COVERED COMMU- 21 NITIES.—The Administrator shall, by regulation, re- 22 quire a covered community to— 23 ‘‘(A) determine the areas within the cov- 24 ered community in which properties described 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:16 Feb 08, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5776.IH H5776 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 5776 IH in paragraph (1)(A)(ii) or flood-damaged facili- 1 ties are located in order to identify areas that 2 are repeatedly damaged by floods; 3 ‘‘(B) assess, with assistance from the Ad- 4 ministrator, the continuing risks to the repeat- 5 edly damaged areas identified under subpara- 6 graph (A); 7 ‘‘(C) develop a community-specific plan for 8 mitigating continuing flood risks to the repeat- 9 edly damaged areas identified under subpara- 10 graph (A); 11 ‘‘(D) submit the plan described in subpara- 12 graph (C) and any plan updates to the Admin- 13 istrator at appropriate intervals; 14 ‘‘(E) implement the plan described in sub- 15 paragraph (C); and 16 ‘‘(F) subject to section 552a of title 5, 17 United States Code, make the plan described in 18 subparagraph (C), any updates to the plan, and 19 reports on progress in reducing flood risk avail- 20 able to the public. 21 ‘‘(3) INCORPORATION INTO EXISTING PLANS.— 22 A covered community may incorporate a plan devel- 23 oped under paragraph (2)(C) into a mitigation plan 24 developed under— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:16 Feb 08, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5776.IH H5776 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 5776 IH ‘‘(A) section 1366; and 1 ‘‘(B) section 322 of the Robert T. Stafford 2 Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act 3 (42 U.S.C. 5165). 4 ‘‘(4) ASSISTANCE TO COMMUNITIES.— 5 ‘‘(A) DATA.—To assist a covered commu- 6 nity in developing a plan required under para- 7 graph (2)(C), the Administrator shall, upon re- 8 quest, provide the covered community with ap- 9 propriate data regarding the property addresses 10 and dates of claims associated with insured 11 properties within the covered community. 12 ‘‘(B) MITIGATION GRANTS.—In making a 13 determination regarding financial assistance 14 under this Act, the Administrator may consider 15 the extent to which a covered community— 16 ‘‘(i) has complied with this subsection; 17 and 18 ‘‘(ii) is working to remedy problems 19 with respect to repeatedly flooded areas. 20 ‘‘(5) SANCTIONS.— 21 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator 22 may, by regulations issued in accordance with 23 the procedures required under section 553 of 24 title 5, United States Code, impose appropriate 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:16 Feb 08, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5776.IH H5776 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 5776 IH sanctions on a covered community that fails 1 to— 2 ‘‘(i) comply with this subsection; or 3 ‘‘(ii) make sufficient progress in re- 4 ducing the flood risks to areas in the cov- 5 ered community that are repeatedly dam- 6 aged by floods. 7 ‘‘(B) NOTICE.— 8 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Before imposing 9 any sanctions under this paragraph, the 10 Administrator shall provide the covered 11 community that is subject to the sanctions 12 with notice of the violation that may sub- 13 ject the covered community to the sanc- 14 tions. 15 ‘‘(ii) CONTENTS.—The notice required 16 under clause (i) shall include recommenda- 17 tions for actions that the covered commu- 18 nity receiving the notice may take in order 19 to bring the covered community into com- 20 pliance. 21 ‘‘(C) CONSIDERATIONS.—In determining 22 appropriate sanctions to impose under this 23 paragraph, the Administrator shall consider the 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:16 Feb 08, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5776.IH H5776 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 5776 IH resources available to the covered community 1 that is subject to the sanctions, including— 2 ‘‘(i) any Federal funding received by 3 the covered community; 4 ‘‘(ii) the portion of the covered com- 5 munity that lies within an area having spe- 6 cial flood hazards; and 7 ‘‘(iii) any other factor that makes it 8 difficult for the covered community to con- 9 duct mitigation activities for flood-prone 10 structures. 11 ‘‘(6) REPORTS TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 12 6 years after the date of enactment of this sub- 13 section, and not less frequently than once every 2 14 years thereafter, the Administrator shall submit to 15 Congress a report regarding the progress made by 16 covered communities with respect to implementing 17 plans developed under paragraph (2)(C).’’. 18 (b) REGULATIONS.—Not later than 1 year after the 19 date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the 20 Federal Emergency Management Agency shall issue regu- 21 lations necessary to carry out subsection (e) of section 22 1361 of the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 (42 23 U.S.C. 4102), as added by subsection (a) of this section. 24 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:16 Feb 08, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H5776.IH H5776 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS