I 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 8616 
To eliminate any subsidies for flood insurance coverage under the National 
Flood Insurance Program for new construction, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 16, 2020 
Mr. PETERS (for himself and Mr. BARR) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on Financial Services 
A BILL 
To eliminate any subsidies for flood insurance coverage under 
the National Flood Insurance Program for new construc-
tion, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Build for Future Dis-
asters Act of 2020’’. 
SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS. 
The Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) According to the National Oceanic and At-
mospheric Administration, since 2000, flooding has 
become the most common and costly natural disaster 
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in the United States, impacting all 50 States and 
causing more than $845 billion in damage. 
(2) A 2019 report from the California-based 
analytics company CoreLogic found that 7.3 million 
homes along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts alone are 
at risk from storm surge, with a potential $1.8 tril-
lion in reconstruction costs. 
(3) Research from New York University’s 
Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy 
estimated that, in 2015, 15 million people nation-
wide lived in the 100-year floodplain spread across 
coastal and inland States. 
(4) The National Flood Insurance Program 
(NFIP), administered by the Federal Emergency 
Management Agency (FEMA), provides federally 
backed flood insurance in over 22,000 communities 
in 56 States and jurisdictions in the United States 
with more than 5 million policies providing over $1.3 
trillion in coverage. 
(5) In 1966, while calling for the creation of 
the NFIP, the Task Force on Federal Flood Control 
Policy provided ‘‘a caution on flood insurance’’ that 
if ‘‘incorrectly applied, it could exacerbate the whole 
problem of flood losses.’’. The report warned that in-
surance coverage not proportionate to risk would 
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‘‘invite economic waste of great magnitude . . . ag-
gravate flood damages and constitute gross public ir-
responsibility’’. 
(6) According to the Government Accountability 
Office (GAO), the NFIP offers 20 percent of policy-
holders heavily subsidized rates that FEMA esti-
mates may be 45 to 50 percent below a full-risk 
rate. 
(7) Since 2005, the NFIP has borrowed nearly 
$40 billion from taxpayers to meet policyholder in-
surance claims. 
(8) In 2017, the Congressional Budget Office 
estimated that under its current model the NFIP is 
expected to lose $1.3 billion a year. 
(9) Historically, repeatedly flooded properties 
have accounted for just 1 percent of properties with 
National Flood Insurance Program policies but 
about 25 to 30 percent of flood claims. Nationwide 
more than 150,000 properties have repeatedly flood-
ed at a cost to the NFIP of more than $12.5 billion. 
(10) On May 26, 2019, four former FEMA Ad-
ministrators wrote a letter to Congressional leaders 
stating: ‘‘Change is needed to allow the NFIP to pay 
off its debt and serve its purposes of reducing Fed-
eral disaster spending following flood events, mini-
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mizing flood losses, and discouraging unwise build-
ing in flood-prone areas.’’. 
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of the Congress that the Federal Gov-
ernment should— 
(1) discourage regulation and policies that re-
sult in building and rebuilding homes located in high 
flood-risk areas; 
(2) limit the availability of federally subsidized 
flood insurance for construction of new homes, busi-
ness, and infrastructure; 
(3) coordinate with floodplain managers, city 
planners, administrators, and local elected officials 
to ensure that structures built in flood-prone areas 
comply with building and elevation codes and regula-
tions that are designed to reduce their risk of dam-
age from flooding; and 
(4) prioritize increased mitigation funding 
through new and existing programs to help commu-
nities better prepare for future flood disasters before 
they happen. 
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SEC. 4. ELIMINATION OF SUBSIDIES FOR NEW CONSTRUC-
TION. 
Subsection (c) of section 1308 of the National Flood 
Insurance Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 4015(c)) is amended 
by adding at the end the following new paragraph: 
‘‘(3) NEW CONSTRUCTION.—Any property the 
construction or substantial improvement of which 
the Administrator determines has been started on or 
after January 1, 2025, and the appropriate actuarial 
rate shall be adjusted with any changes to the flood 
zone or base flood elevation reflected in relevant 
flood insurance rate map, regardless of the previous 
rating; in determining whether a property is subject 
to this paragraph, the Administrator shall consider 
the issue date for any relevant building permit or oc-
cupancy certificate issued by the community in 
which such property is located; for purposes of this 
paragraph only, a determination regarding substan-
tial improvement may exclude the costs of any im-
provement to a structure or the structure’s associ-
ated land area for which the primary purpose is 
flood mitigation or floodproofing; such improvements 
may include elevation of the building or utilities, 
floodproofing, or other site-specific mitigation activi-
ties that would otherwise meet the eligibility require-
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ments established by the Administrator under au-
thority of section 1366(c) (42 U.S.C. 4104c(c)).’’. 
SEC. 5. GAO STUDY AND REPORT. 
The Comptroller General of the United States shall 
conduct a study to determine the feasibility and effects 
of— 
(1) eliminating, by January 1, 2027, all sub-
sidies that reduce premiums for coverage under the 
National Flood Insurance Program of the Federal 
Emergency Management Agency to amounts that 
are less than the amount that is actuarially nec-
essary for such Program to operate without a deficit; 
and 
(2) prohibiting any subsidy described in para-
graph (1) for any property unless mitigation activi-
ties to decrease the risk of flood damage to such 
property have been completed. 
Not later than the expiration of the 12-month period be-
ginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, the 
Comptroller General shall submit a report to the Congress 
that describes the findings of the study pursuant to this 
section. 
Æ 
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