I 
115TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5569 
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 
APRIL 18, 2018 
Mr. QUIGLEY (for himself, Mr. CULBERSON, and Mr. RUPPERSBERGER) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Trans-
portation and Infrastructure, and in addition to the Committee on Finan-
cial Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, 
in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the juris-
diction 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 2018’’. 
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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(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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