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. 
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 ‘‘Repeatedly Flooded 
Communities Preparation Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. COMMUNITY ACCOUNTABILITY FOR REPETITIVELY 
FLOODED AREAS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 1361 of the National 
Flood Insurance Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 4102) is amended 
by adding at the end the following new subsection: 
‘‘(e) COMMUNITY
ACCOUNTABILITY
FOR
REPET-
ITIVELY DAMAGED AREAS.— 
‘‘(1) IN
GENERAL.—The Administrator shall, 
by regulation, require any covered community (as 
such term is defined in paragraph (3))— 
‘‘(A) to identify the areas within the com-
munity where properties described in paragraph 
(5)(B) or flood-damaged facilities are located to 
determine areas repeatedly damaged by floods 
and to assess, with assistance from the Admin-
istrator, the continuing risks to such areas; 
‘‘(B) to develop a community-specific plan 
for mitigating continuing flood risks to such re-
petitively flooded areas and to submit such plan 
and plan updates to the Administrator at ap-
propriate intervals; 
‘‘(C) to implement such plans; 
‘‘(D) to make such plan, plan updates, and 
reports on progress in reducing flood risk avail-
able to the public, subject to section 552a of 
title 5, United States Code. 
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‘‘(2) INCORPORATION INTO EXISTING PLANS.— 
Plans developed pursuant to paragraph (1) may be 
incorporated into mitigation plans developed under 
section 1366 of this Act (42 U.S.C. 4104c) and haz-
ard mitigation plans developed under section 322 of 
the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emer-
gency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5165). 
‘‘(3) ASSISTANCE TO COMMUNITIES.— 
‘‘(A) DATA.—To assist communities in 
preparation of plans required under paragraph 
(1), the Administrator shall, upon request, pro-
vide covered communities with appropriate data 
regarding the property addresses and dates of 
claims associated with insured properties within 
the community. 
‘‘(B) MITIGATION GRANTS.—In making de-
terminations 
regarding 
financial 
assistance 
under the authorities of this Act, the Adminis-
trator may consider the extent to which a com-
munity has complied with this subsection and is 
working to remedy problems with addressing re-
peatedly flooded areas. 
‘‘(4) SANCTIONS.—The Administrator shall, by 
regulations issued in accordance with the procedures 
established under section 553 of title 5, United 
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States Code, regarding substantive rules, provide ap-
propriate sanctions for covered communities that fail 
to comply with the requirements under this sub-
section or to make sufficient progress in reducing 
the flood risks to areas in the community that are 
repeatedly damaged by floods. Such sanctions shall 
include suspension from the national flood insurance 
program and probation under such program, in the 
manner provided under section 59.24 of the Admin-
istrator’s regulations (44 C.F.R. 59.24). 
‘‘(5) COVERED COMMUNITY.—For purposes of 
this subsection, the term ‘covered community’ means 
a community— 
‘‘(A) that is participating, pursuant to sec-
tion 1315, in the national flood insurance pro-
gram; and 
‘‘(B) within which are located— 
‘‘(i) 50 or more repetitive loss struc-
tures (as such term is defined in para-
graph (4)); 
‘‘(ii) 5 or more severe repetitive loss 
structures (as such term is defined in sec-
tion 1366(h)) for which mitigation activi-
ties meeting the standards for approval 
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under section 1366(c)(2)(A) have not been 
conducted; or 
‘‘(iii) a public facility or a private 
nonprofit facility (as such terms are as de-
fined in section 102 of the Robert T. Staf-
ford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assist-
ance Act (42 U.S.C. 5122)), that has re-
ceived assistance for repair, restoration, re-
construction, or replacement under section 
406 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Re-
lief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 
U.S.C. 5172) in connection with more than 
one flooding event in the most recent 10- 
year period. 
‘‘(6) REPETITIVE-LOSS STRUCTURE.—For pur-
poses of this subsection, the term ‘repetitive loss 
structure’ has the meaning given such term in sec-
tion 1370 (42 U.S.C. 4121). 
‘‘(7) REPORTS TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 
the expiration of the 6-year period beginning upon 
the date of the enactment of this subsection, and not 
less than every 2 years thereafter, the Administrator 
shall submit a report to the Congress regarding the 
progress in implementing plans developed pursuant 
to paragraph (1)(B).’’. 
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