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FLOOD INSURANCE

EXCERPTS FROM THE FLOOD DISASTER PROTECTION ACT OF 1973

[Public Law 93-234; 87 Stat. 975; 42 U.S.C. 4002, 4012a, 4105]

That this Act may be cited as the "Flood Disaster Protection Act of 1973".

FINDINGS AND DECLARATION OF PURPOSE

SEC. 2. (a) The Congress finds that

(1) annual losses throughout the Nation from floods and mudslides are increasing at an alarming rate, largely as a result of the accelerating development of, and concentration of population in, areas of flood and mudslides hazards;

(2) the availability of Federal loans, grants, guaranties, insurance, and other forms of financial assistance are often determining factors in the utilization of land and the location and construction of public and of private industrial, commercial, and residential facilities;

(3) property acquired or contructed with grants or other Federal assistance may be exposed to risk of loss through floods, thus frustrating the purpose for which such assistance was extended;

(4) Federal instrumentalities insure or otherwise provide financial protection to banking and credit institutions whose assets include a substantial number of mortgage loans and other indebtedness secured by property exposed to loss and damage from floods and mudslides:

(5) the Nation cannot afford the tragic losses of life caused annually by flood occurences, nor the increasing losses of property suffered by flood victims, most of whom are still inadequately compensated despite the provision of costly disaster relief benefits; and

(6) it is in the public interest for persons already living in floodprone areas to have both an opportunity to purchase flood insurance and access to more adequate limits of coverage, so that they will be indemnified for their losses in the event of future flood disasters.

(b) The purpose of this Act, therefore, is to

(1) substantially increase the limits of coverage authorized under the national flood insurance program;

(2) provide for the expeditious identification of, and the dissemination of information concerning, flood-prone areas;

(3) require States or local communities, as a condition of future Federal financial assistance, to participate in the flood insurance program and to adopt adequate flood plain ordinances with effective enforcement provisions consistent with Federal standards to reduce or avoid future flood losses; and

(4) require the purchase of flood insurance by property owners who are being assisted by Federal programs or by federally supervised, regulated, or insured agencies or institutions in the acquisition or improvement of land or facilities located

or to be located in identified areas having special flood hazards.

DEFINITIONS

SEC. 3. (a) As used in this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, the term

(1) "community" means a State or a political subdivision thereof which has zoning and building code jurisdiction over a particular area having special flood hazards;

(2) "Federal agency" means any department, agency, corporation, or other entity or instrumentality of the executive branch of the Federal Government, and includes the Federal National Mortgage Association and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation;

(3) "financial assistance" means any form of loan, grant, guaranty, insurance, payment, rebate, subsidy, disaster assistance loan or grant, or any other form of direct or indirect Federal assistance, other than general or special revenue sharing or formula grants made to States;

(4) "financial assistance for acquisition or construction purposes" means any form of financial assistance which is intended in whole or in part for the acquisition, construction, reconstruction, repair, or improvement of any publicly or privately owned building or mobile home, and for any machinery, equipment fixtures, and furnishings contained or to be contained therein, and shall include the purchase or subsidization of mortgages or mortgage loans but shall exclude assistance pursuant to the Disaster Relief Act of 1974 (other than assistance under such Act in connection with a flood);

(5) "Federal instrumentality responsible for the supervision, approval, regulation, or insuring of banks, savings and loan associations, or similar institution" means the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation, and the National Credit Union Administration; and

(6) "Director" means the Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

(b) The Director is authorized to define or redefine, by rules and regulations, any scientific or technical term used in this Act, insofar as such definition is not inconsistent with the purposes of this Act.

TITLE I-EXPANSION OF NATIONAL FLOOD INSURANCE

PROGRAM

REQUIREMENTS TO PURCHASE FLOOD INSURANCE

SEC. 102. (a) After the expiration of sixty days following the date of enactment of this Act, no Federal officer or agency shall approve any financial assistance for acquisition or construction purposes for

use in any area that has been identified by the Director as an area having special flood hazards and in which the sale of flood insurance has been made available under the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968, unless the building or mobile home and any personal property to which such financial assistance relates is, during the anticipated economic or useful life of the project, covered by flood insurance in an amount at least equal to its development or project cost (less estimated land cost) or to the maximum limit of coverage made available with respect to the particular type of property under the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968, whichever is less: Provided, That if the financial assistance provided is in the form of a loan or an insurance or guaranty of a loan, the amount of flood insurance required need not exceed the outstanding principal balance of the loan and need not by required beyond the term of the loan.

(b) Each Federal instrumentality responsible for the supervision, approval, regulation, or insuring of banks, savings and loan associations, or similar institutions shall by regulation direct such institutions not to make, increase, extend or renew after the expiration of sixty days following the date of enactment of this Act any loan secured by improved real estate or a mobile home located or to be located in an area that has been identified by the Director as an area having special flood hazards and in which flood insurance has been made available under the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968, unless the building or mobile home and any personal property securing such loan is covered for the term of the loan by flood insurance in an amount at lease equal to the outstanding principal balance of the loan or to the maximum limit of coverage made available with respect to the particular type of property under the Act, whichever is less.

(c) Notwithstanding the other provisions of this section, flood insurance shall not be required on any State-owned property that is covered under an adequate State policy of self-insurance satisfactory to the Director. The Director shall publish and periodically revise the list of States to which this subsection applies.

TITLE II-DISASTER MITIGATION REQUIREMENTS

NOTIFICATION TO FLOOD-PRONE AREAS

SEC. 201. (a) Not later than six months following the enactment of this title, the Director shall publish information in accordance with subsection 1360(1) of the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968, and shall notify the chief executive officer of each known flood-prone community not already participating in the national flood insurance program of its tentative identification as a community containing one or more areas having special flood hazards.

(b) After such notification, each tentatively identified community shall either (1) promptly make proper application to participate in the national flood insurance program or (2) within six months submit technical data sufficient to establish to the satisfaction of the Director that the community either is not seriously flood prone or that such flood hazards as may have existed have been corrected

by floodworks or other flood control methods. The Director may, in his discretion, grant a public hearing to any community with respect to which conflicting data exist as to the nature and extent of a flood hazard. If the Director decides not to hold a hearing, the community shall be given an opportunity to submit written and documentary evidence. Whether or not such hearing is granted, the Director's final determination as to the existence or extent of a flood hazard area in a particular community shall be deemed conclusive for the purposes of this Act if supported by substantial evidence in the record considered as a whole.

(c) As information becomes available to the Director, concerning the existence of flood hazards in communities not known to be flood prone at the time of the initial notification provided for by subsection (a) of this section he shall provide similar notifications to the chief executive officers of such additional communities, which shall then be subject to the requirements of subsection (b) of this section.

(d) Formally identified flood-prone communities that do not qualify for the national flood insurance program within one year after such notification or by the date specified in section 202, whichever is later, shall thereafter be subject to the provisions of that section relating to flood-prone communities which are not participating in the program.

(e) The Director is authorized to establish administrative procedures whereby the identification under this section of one or more areas in the community as having special flood hazards may be appealed to the Director by the community or any owner or lessee of real property within the community who believes his property has been inadvertently included in a special flood hazard area by the identification. When, incident to any appeal under this subsection, the owner or lessee of real property or the community, as the case may be, incurs expense in connection with the services of surveyors, engineers, or similar services, but not including legal services, in the effecting of an appeal which is successful in whole or part, the Director shall reimburse such individual or community to an extent measured by the ratio of the successful portion of the appeal as compared to the entire appeal and applying such ratio to the reasonable value of all such services, but no reimbursement shall be made by the Director in respect to any fee or expense payment, the payment of which was agreed to be contingent upon the result of the appeal. There is authorized to be appropriated for purposes of implementing this subsection not to exceed $250,000.

EFFECT OF NONPARTICIPATION IN FLOOD INSURANCE PROGRAM

SEC. 202. (a) No Federal officer or agency shall approve any financial assistance for acquisition or construction purposes on and after July 1, 1975, for use in any area that has been identified by the Director as an area having special flood hazards unless the community in which such area is situated is then participating in the national flood insurance program.

(b) In addition to the requirements of section 1364 of the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968, each Federal instrumentality described in such section shall by regulation require the institutions

described in such section to notify (as a condition of making, increasing, extending, or renewing any loan secured by property described in such section) the purchaser or lessee of such property of whether, in the event of a disaster caused by flood to such property, Federal disaster relief assistance will be available to such property.

AUTHORITY TO ISSUE REGULATIONS

SEC. 205. (a) The Director is authorized to issue such regulations as may be necessary to carry out the purpose of this Act.

(b) The head of each Federal agency that administers a program of financial assistance relating to the acquisition, construction, reconstruction, repair, or improvement of publicly or privately owned land or facilities, and each Federal instrumentality responsible for the supervision, approval, regulation, or insuring of banks, savings and loan associations, or similar institutions, shall, in cooperation with the Director, issue appropriate rules and regulations to govern the carrying out of the agency's responsibilities under this Act.

CONSULTATION WITH LOCAL OFFICIALS

SEC. 206. In carrying out his responsibilities under the provisions of this title and the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 which relate to notification to and identification of flood-prone areas and the application of criteria for land management and use, including criteria derived from data reflecting new developments that may indicate the desirability of modifying elevations based on previous flood studies, the Director shall establish procedures assuring adequate consultation with the appropriate elected officials of general purpose local governments, including but not limited to those local governments whose prior eligibility under the program has been suspended. Such consultations shall include, but not be limited to, fully informing local officials at the commencement of any flood elevation study or investigation undertaken by any agency on behalf of the Director concerning the nature and purpose of the study, the areas involved, the manner in which the study is to be undertaken, the general principles to be applied, and the use to be made of the data obtained. The Director shall encourage local officials to disseminate information concerning such study widely within the community, so that interested persons will have an opportunity to bring all relevant facts and technical data concerning the local flood hazard to the attention of the agency during the course of the study.

Approved December 31, 1973.

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