“A bill to amend the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 to require that certain information is made publicly available, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section establishes public availability requirements for National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) data to support flood risk research and technology development. (The NFIP, administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, provides flood insurance to property owners in participating communities and identifies special flood hazard areas (SFHAs) via Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs).) Specifically, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator must (1) publicly release all relevant flood risk data, models, assessments, and tools—including property-level risk data, loss ratios (i.e., claims paid divided by premiums paid in a fiscal year), policy and claims information (limited to amount, term, and payment date), pre- and post-first FIRM construction status, mitigation actions, and unmitigated multiple-loss properties (i.e., repetitive or severe repetitive loss structures)—via an open source electronic data system for immediate public access; and (2) within one year of enactment, create a publicly searchable database on NFIP-participating communities' compliance status, pre- and post-FIRM SFHA properties, out-of-SFHA claims, multiple-loss properties, and SFHA coverage (as a percentage and in square miles). All data must be aggregated at the ZIP Code or census block level (including community and state identification) and formatted to protect personally identifiable information under the Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. §552a).