Promoting Flood Risk Mitigation Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5846, the Promoting Flood Risk Mitigation Act, as amended.

This bill was brought to us by my colleague from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer).

The bill requires the Government Accountability Office to conduct a study of the efficacy of buyouts of flood-prone property acquired by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and examine ways to streamline funding to provide more timely assistance to a larger number of State and local governments.

One only needs to look at last year's hurricane season to see the devastating impacts of these intense storms that were caused by climate change and what they did to our communities. Unfortunately for many residents, the damage and destruction caused by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria were not occurring for the first time but for a second or third time. These homes have been flooded and then had to be repaired with Federal assistance.

In order to stop this endless repairing and rebuilding of homes in floodplain areas, we must find ways to encourage more homeowners to agree to having their homes bought out, as well as ways to encourage State and local governments to purchase more of these properties.

The bill before you requires the GAO to assess the feasibility of a pilot program that, in exchange for a credit on their flood insurance premiums, property owners would be able to agree, before a flood occurs, to have their residence bought out if their residence is later substantially damaged by flood. The study would also examine the role that nonprofit organizations could play in making buyouts more readily available and more efficient.

We must stop the cycle of destroy, rebuild, destroy, rebuild. This study is a good first step to assess the benefits of buyouts and the feasibility of potential solutions.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source