Adequate flood protection is vital to the resiliency of communities across America.  Home and business owners must have access to quality flood insurance coverage at affordable rates to recover more quickly and completely following a flood event.

Despite increased flooding nationwide, the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) has been shrinking. In 2009, there were a record 5.7 million NFIP policies in force. By 2017, there were just over 5.1 million NFIP policies in force, a decrease of approximately 10%¹.

According to FEMA, in May 2018, 69% of the residential properties in Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHA) did not have a NFIP policy. Outside of the SFHAs, 98% of residential properties did not have a NFIP policy. In total, 96.2% of residential properties in the U.S. do not have federal flood insurance. While the private flood insurance market is growing to alleviate additional flood risk exposure, the cumulative coverage levels are profoundly insufficient.

This extreme uninsured and underinsured risk is a threat that can only be effectively addressed through a combination of a healthy NFIP and a robust private flood insurance market.

Year after year, the NFIP has received short-term reauthorizations from Congress. Moving forward, it will be critical to pass a long-term reauthorization bill and to tackle much-needed reforms that will make the program more sustainable and keep coverage affordable.

FAIR supports full, long-term reauthorization of the NFIP and public policy improvements necessary to both encourage growth in the private flood insurance market and protect consumers.

¹ FEMA Total Policies in Force by Calendar Year (https://www.fema.gov/total-policies-force-calendar-year)

Flooding is the most common and costly natural disaster in the United States. In addition to supporting comprehensive flood insurance reform, FAIR supports efforts to make the U.S. more resilient to the impact of flooding. This includes efforts to create more flood-ready infrastructure, fund mitigation projects across the country, and efforts to incentivize individual property owners to better prepare their property from flood losses. These efforts are critical for preparing our country for future flooding and from the impacts of climate change. Furthermore, these efforts would reduce the losses from a disaster and would in turn help reduce the cost of insurance for consumers.

Legislation FAIR Supports in the 117th Congress (2021-2022):

• H.R. 481 – Flood Resilience and Taxpayer Savings Act of 2021
• H.R. 1984 – Disaster Savings and Resilient Construction Act