The Bunning-Bereuter-Blumenauer Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2004 () reformed the
National Flood Insurance Program
The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is a program created by the Congress of the United States in 1968 through the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 (P.L. 90-448). The NFIP has two purposes: to share the risk of flood losses through floo ...
(NFIP) and the terms of the
National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 The National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 is legislation enacted in the United States that led to the creation of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).Haddow, George D. and Jane A. Bullock, 2003, ''Introduction to Emergency Management'', Amste ...
. It was designed to "reduce losses to properties for which repetitive flood insurance claim payments have been made." The Act's main sponsors were Sen.
Jim Bunning
James Paul David Bunning (October 23, 1931 – May 26, 2017) was an American professional baseball pitcher and politician who represented Kentucky in both chambers of the United States Congress. He was the sole Major League Baseball athlete to ha ...
, Rep.
Doug Bereuter
Douglas Kent Bereuter (born October 6, 1939) is an American retired politician from the state of Nebraska in the Midwestern United States. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1979 until 2004. He also served as the presi ...
, and Rep.
Earl Blumenauer
Earl Francis Blumenauer ( ; born August 16, 1948) is an American lawyer, author, and politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 1996. The district includes most of Portland east of the Willamette River.
A member of the Democratic P ...
.
The Act's preamble included the following Congressional findings that quantify the motivation for the new law:
*the NFIP insures approximately 4,400,000 policyholders;
*about 48,000 properties in the program have experienced, within a ten-year period, two or more flood losses where each loss is more than $1,000;
*about 10,000 repetitive-loss properties have experienced two or three losses that cumulatively exceed building value;
*these repetitive-loss properties cost the taxpayer about $200 million annually;
*about 1% of insured properties account for 25-30% of claims losses;
*the vast majority of repetitive-loss properties were built before the 1974 implementation of
floodplain
A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...
management standards created under the original program and thus are eligible for subsidized flood insurance.
When introduced in the House on January 8, 2003, the bill was called the Two Floods and You Are Out of the Taxpayers' Pocket Act of 2003.
External links
Senate an
HouseSummary, from a
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
website
Blumenauer's January 2003 news releaseabout the bill
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flood Insurance Reform Act Of 2004
2004 in the environment
Flood control acts in the United States
Insurance legislation
United States federal environmental legislation
Acts of the 108th United States Congress
United States federal legislation articles without infoboxes
Flood insurance