I 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1558 

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 

MARCH 16, 2017 

Mr. ROYCE of California (for himself and Mr. BLUMENAUER) 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. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Repeatedly Flooded 

5 Communities Preparation Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. COMMUNITY ACCOUNTABILITY FOR REPETITIVELY 

2 FLOODED AREAS. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 1361 of the National 

4 Flood Insurance Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 4102) is amended 

5 by adding at the end the following new subsection: 

6 ‘‘(e) COMMUNITY ACCOUNTABILITY FOR REPET7 ITIVELY DAMAGED AREAS.— 

8 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator shall, 

9 by regulation, require any covered community (as 

10 such term is defined in paragraph (3))— 

11 ‘‘(A) to identify the areas within the com12 munity where properties described in paragraph 

13 (5)(B) or flood-damaged facilities are located to 

14 determine areas repeatedly damaged by floods 

15 and to assess, with assistance from the Admin16 istrator, the continuing risks to such areas; 

17 ‘‘(B) to develop a community-specific plan 

18 for mitigating continuing flood risks to such re19 petitively flooded areas and to submit such plan 

20 and plan updates to the Administrator at ap21 propriate intervals; 

22 ‘‘(C) to implement such plans; 

23 ‘‘(D) to make such plan, plan updates, and 

24 reports on progress in reducing flood risk avail25 able to the public, subject to section 552a of 

26 title 5, United States Code. 


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1 ‘‘(2) INCORPORATION INTO EXISTING PLANS.— 

2 Plans developed pursuant to paragraph (1) may be 

3 incorporated into mitigation plans developed under 

4 section 1366 of this Act (42 U.S.C. 4104c) and haz5 ard mitigation plans developed under section 322 of 

6 the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emer7 gency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5165). 

8 ‘‘(3) ASSISTANCE TO COMMUNITIES.— 

9 ‘‘(A) DATA.—To assist communities in 

10 preparation of plans required under paragraph 

11 (1), the Administrator shall, upon request, pro12 vide covered communities with appropriate data 

13 regarding the property addresses and dates of 

14 claims associated with insured properties within 

15 the community. 

16 ‘‘(B) MITIGATION GRANTS.—In making de17 terminations regarding financial assistance 

18 under the authorities of this Act, the Adminis19 trator may consider the extent to which a com20 munity has complied with this subsection and is 

21 working to remedy problems with addressing re22 peatedly flooded areas. 

23 ‘‘(4) SANCTIONS.—The Administrator shall, by 

24 regulations issued in accordance with the procedures 

25 established under section 553 of title 5, United 


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1 States Code, regarding substantive rules, provide ap2 propriate sanctions for covered communities that fail 

3 to comply with the requirements under this sub4 section or to make sufficient progress in reducing 

5 the flood risks to areas in the community that are 

6 repeatedly damaged by floods. Such sanctions shall 

7 include suspension from the national flood insurance 

8 program and probation under such program, in the 

9 manner provided under section 59.24 of the Admin10 istrator’s regulations (44 C.F.R. 59.24). 

11 ‘‘(5) COVERED COMMUNITY.—For purposes of 

12 this subsection, the term ‘covered community’ means 

13 a community— 

14 ‘‘(A) that is participating, pursuant to sec15 tion 1315, in the national flood insurance pro16 gram; and 

17 ‘‘(B) within which are located— 

18 ‘‘(i) 50 or more repetitive loss struc19 tures (as such term is defined in para20 graph (4)); 

21 ‘‘(ii) 5 or more severe repetitive loss 

22 structures (as such term is defined in sec23 tion 1366(h)) for which mitigation activi24 ties meeting the standards for approval 


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1 under section 1366(c)(2)(A) have not been 

2 conducted; or 

3 ‘‘(iii) a public facility or a private 

4 nonprofit facility (as such terms are as de5 fined in section 102 of the Robert T. Staf6 ford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assist7 ance Act (42 U.S.C. 5122)), that has re8 ceived assistance for repair, restoration, re9 construction, or replacement under section 

10 406 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Re11 lief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 

12 U.S.C. 5172) in connection with more than 

13 one flooding event in the most recent 10- 

14 year period. 

15 ‘‘(6) REPETITIVE-LOSS STRUCTURE.—For pur16 poses of this subsection, the term ‘repetitive loss 

17 structure’ has the meaning given such term in sec18 tion 1370 (42 U.S.C. 4121). 

19 ‘‘(7) REPORTS TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 

20 the expiration of the 6-year period beginning upon 

21 the date of the enactment of this subsection, and not 

22 less than every 2 years thereafter, the Administrator 

23 shall submit a report to the Congress regarding the 

24 progress in implementing plans developed pursuant 

25 to paragraph (1)(B).’’. 


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1 (b) REGULATIONS.—The Administrator of the Fed2 eral Emergency Management Agency shall issue regula3 tions necessary to carry out subsection (e) of section 1361 

4 of the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968, as added 

5 by the amendment made by subsection (a) of this section, 

6 not later than the expiration of the 12-month period that 

7 begins on the date of the enactment of this Act. 

Æ 


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