I 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2462 
To establish a pilot program to enhance the mapping of urban flooding 
and associated property damage and the availability of such mapped 
data to homeowners, businesses, and localities to help understand and 
mitigate the risk of such flooding, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 1, 2019 
Mr. QUIGLEY (for himself and Mr. ROONEY of Florida) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and 
Infrastructure, and in addition to the Committee on Financial Services, 
for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case 
for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the 
committee concerned 
A BILL 
To establish a pilot program to enhance the mapping of 
urban flooding and associated property damage and the 
availability of such mapped data to homeowners, busi-
nesses, and localities to help understand and mitigate 
the risk of such flooding, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Flood Mapping Mod-
ernization and Homeowner Empowerment Pilot Program 
Act of 2019’’. 
SEC. 2. FLOOD MAPPING MODERNIZATION AND HOME-
OWNER EMPOWERMENT PILOT PROGRAM. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator of the Federal 
Emergency Management Agency shall carry out a pilot 
program to make grants to units of local government to 
enhance the mapping of urban flooding and associated 
property damage and the availability of such mapped data 
to homeowners, businesses, and units of local government 
to enable them to minimize the risk of such flooding. 
(b) OBJECTIVES.—Amounts from grants made under 
the pilot program under this section may be used only to 
carry out activities to meet the following objectives: 
(1) To develop a methodology for assessing 
urban flood risk through the deployment of tech-
nology-based mapping tools that are easily under-
standable by the public and effectively convey infor-
mation regarding the level of flood risk. 
(2) To provide structure-specific projections of 
annual chance flood frequency. 
(3) To provide structure-based flood-risk assess-
ments. 
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(4) To provide urban flood-risk mitigation pro-
gram design. 
(5) To incorporate information regarding cli-
mate trends into urban flooding risk assessments. 
(6) To make the information described in this 
subsection publicly available on the internet through 
a web-based portal so as to increase transparency re-
garding homeowner flood risks. 
(c) ELIGIBLE RECIPIENTS.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Grants under the pilot pro-
gram under this section may be made only to units 
of general local government located in a urbanized 
areas, as such term is used by the Bureau of the 
Census of the Department of Commerce, having 
populations exceeding 50,000 or to stormwater man-
agement authorities of such units of general local 
government. 
(2) ONE-TIME
GRANTS.—A grant under the 
pilot program under this section may not be made 
to— 
(A) any unit of general local governmental, 
or stormwater management authority of a unit 
of general government, that has previously re-
ceived a grant under the pilot program; 
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(B) any unit of general local government if 
the stormwater management agency for such 
unit has previously received a grant under the 
pilot program; or 
(C) any stormwater management agency of 
a unit of general local government if such unit 
has previously received a grant under the pilot 
program. 
(3) TREATMENT
OF
STORMWATER
MANAGE-
MENT AUTHORITIES.—In the case of a stormwater 
management authority that operates with respect to 
more than one unit of general local government, the 
application of such authority shall be considered for 
purposes of paragraph (2) of this subsection and 
subsections (e), (f), and (g)(1) to be made for the 
largest unit of general local government for which 
such authority operates. The preceding sentence 
shall not limit the ability of such authority to carry 
out activities under the demonstration project in any 
other jurisdictions or unit of local government with 
respect to which the authority operates. 
(d) APPLICATIONS.—To be eligible for a grant under 
this section a unit of general local government or stormwa-
ter management agency shall submit to the Administrator 
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an application in such form and containing such informa-
tion as the Administrator shall require. 
(e) SELECTION OF RECIPIENTS.— 
(1) ANNUAL
SELECTION.—Subject to para-
graph (2) and to the submission of approvable appli-
cations, in each fiscal year for which amounts are 
made available for grants under the pilot program 
under this section the Administrator shall select, 
from among applications submitted under subsection 
(d) for such fiscal year, 3 units of general govern-
ment or stormwater management authorities to re-
ceive grants under the pilot program under this sec-
tion. 
(2) AGGREGATE
LIMIT.—Subject only to the 
submission of approvable applications, the Adminis-
trator shall select, in the aggregate over the entire 
duration of the pilot program under this section, 12 
units of general government or stormwater manage-
ment authorities to receive grants under the pilot 
program, as follows: 
(A) TIER 1.—Three of the applicants se-
lected shall be units of general local govern-
ment, or stormwater management authorities 
for such units, having a population exceeding 
800,000, as follows: 
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(i) PELAGIC
COASTAL
CITY.—One 
shall be a unit of general local government, 
or stormwater authority for such a unit, 
that is a pelagic unit. 
(ii) NON-PELAGIC
COASTAL
CITY.— 
One shall be unit of general local govern-
ment, or stormwater authority for such a 
unit, that is a coastal unit, but not a pe-
lagic unit. 
(iii) NON-COASTAL
CITY.—One shall 
be unit of general local government, or 
stormwater authority for such a unit, that 
is not a coastal unit. 
(B) TIER 2.—Six of the applicants selected 
shall be units of general local government, or 
stormwater management authorities for such 
units, having a population exceeding 200,000 
but not exceeding 800,000, as follows: 
(i) COASTAL CITIES.—Three shall be 
units of general local government, or 
stormwater management authorities for 
such units, that are coastal units. 
(ii) 
NON-COASTAL
CITIES.—Three 
shall be units of general local government, 
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or stormwater management authorities for 
such units, that are not coastal units. 
(C) TIER 3.—Three of the applicants se-
lected shall be units of general local govern-
ment, or stormwater management authorities 
for such units, having a population exceeding 
50,000 but not exceeding 200,000. 
(f) PRIORITY.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator shall se-
lect applicants for grants under the pilot program 
under this section based on the extent to which their 
applications will achieve the objectives set forth in 
subsection (b). 
(2) TIERS 2 AND 3.—In selecting applicants to 
receive grants under the pilot program under this 
section pursuant to subparagraphs (B) and (C) of 
subsection (e)(2), the Administrator shall give pri-
ority to applicants— 
(A) that are highly vulnerable to sea level 
rise; 
(B) within which are located a military in-
stallation or other facility relating to national 
security concerns; or 
(C) that have a population that is highly 
vulnerable to urban flooding and have an un-
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even capacity for flood mitigation and response 
efforts resulting from socioeconomic factors. 
(g) AMOUNT.— 
(1) CONSIDERATIONS.—In determining the 
amount of grant under the pilot program under this 
section, the Administrator shall consider the popu-
lation of the grant recipient, which may be consid-
ered in terms of the tier under subsection (e)(2) of 
the recipient. 
(2) FEDERAL SHARE.—The amount of a grant 
under the pilot program under this section may not 
exceed 75 percent of the total cost of the activities 
under subsection (b) to be carried out using the 
grant amounts. 
(h) DURATION.—The Administrator shall require 
each recipient of a grant under the pilot program under 
this section to complete the activities under subsection (b) 
to be carried out using the grant amounts before the expi-
ration of the 18-month period beginning upon the initial 
receipt of grant amounts under the pilot program. 
(i) USE OF CENSUS DATA.—The Administrator shall 
make all determinations under the pilot program regard-
ing population using the most recent available data from 
the decennial census. 
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(j) GRANTEE REPORTS TO FEMA.—Each recipient 
of a grant under the pilot program under this section 
shall, not later than the expiration of the 30-month period 
beginning upon the initial receipt of any such grant 
amounts, submit to the Administrator a report that de-
scribes— 
(1) the activities carried out with amounts from 
the grant; 
(2) how the activities carried out with such 
grant amounts have met the objectives described in 
subsection (b); and 
(3) any lessons learned in carrying out such ac-
tivities and any recommendations for future map-
ping modernization efforts by the Federal Emer-
gency Management Agency. 
(k) BIENNIAL REPORTS BY FEMA.—Not later than 
the expiration of the 24-month period beginning on the 
date of the enactment of this Act, and not later than the 
expiration of each successive 24-month period thereafter 
until the completion of all activities carried out with 
amounts from grants under the pilot program under this 
section, the Administrator shall submit to the Congress 
and make available to the public on an internet website 
a report that— 
(1) describes— 
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(A) the progress of the activities carried 
out with amounts from such grants; and 
(B) the effectiveness of technology-based 
mapping tools used in carrying out the activi-
ties described in subparagraph (A); and 
(2) with respect to the final report that the Ad-
ministrator is required to submit under this sub-
section, includes recommendations to the Congress 
and the executive branch of the Federal Government 
for implementing strategies, practices, and tech-
nologies to mitigate the effects of urban flooding. 
(l) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Congress 
that, because the pilot program is limited with respect to 
scope and resources, communities that participate in the 
pilot program should acknowledge that the most successful 
efforts to mitigate the effects of urban flooding— 
(1) take a structural-based mitigation approach 
with respect to construction, which includes— 
(A) recognizing any post-storm damage 
that may occur; and 
(B) pursuing designs that proactively mini-
mize future flood damage; 
(2) make individuals in the community aware, 
through any cost-effective and available means of 
education, of the best approaches regarding the con-
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struction of properties that are able to survive 
floods, which reduces the cost of future repairs; and 
(3) encourage home and property owners to 
consider the measures described in paragraphs (1) 
and (2), which are the most cost-effective and pru-
dent ways to reduce the impact of flooding, when 
constructing or renovating building components. 
(m) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section, the 
following definitions shall apply: 
(1) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis-
trator’’ means the Administrator of the Federal 
Emergency Management Agency. 
(2) COASTAL.—The term ‘‘coastal’’ means, with 
respect to a unit of general local government, that 
the unit borders a body of water that— 
(A) exceeds 2,000 square miles in size; and 
(B) is not a river. 
(3) PELAGIC.—The term ‘‘pelagic’’ means, with 
respect to a unit of general local government, that 
the unit is a coastal unit and the body of water that 
the unit borders is an ocean or other large, open 
body of water (including bays and gulfs) that 
empties into an ocean. 
(4) URBAN FLOODING.— 
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(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘urban flood-
ing’’ means the inundation of property in a 
built environment, particularly in more densely 
populated areas, caused either by falling rain 
collecting on impervious surfaces or increasing 
the levels of nearby water bodies and over-
whelming the capacity of drainage systems, 
such as storm sewers, including— 
(i) situations in which stormwater en-
ters buildings through windows, doors, or 
other openings; 
(ii) water backup through sewer pipes, 
showers, toilets, sinks, and floor drains; 
(iii) seepage through walls and floors; 
(iv) the accumulation of water on 
property or public rights-of-way; and 
(v) the overflow from water bodies, 
such as rivers, lakes, and oceans. 
(B) EXCLUSION.—Such term does not in-
clude flooding in undeveloped or agricultural 
areas. 
(n) FUNDING.—There is authorized to be appro-
priated for grants under the pilot program under this sec-
tion— 
(1) $1,200,000 for fiscal year 2020; and 
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(2) $4,300,000 for fiscal year 2021, to remain 
available through 2023. 
Æ 
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