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         S    Congressional                                                     ____
         S£    Research Service






A Brief Introduction to the National Flood

Insurance Program in the 118th Congress



Updated November 27, 2023


Introduction

The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is authorized by the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968
(Title XIII of P.L. 90-448, as amended, 42 U.S.C. @4001 et seq.) and is the primary source of flood
insurance coverage for residential properties in the United States. The NFIP has more than 4.7 million
flood insurance policies providing over $1.3 trillion in coverage, with 22,594 communities in 56 states
and jurisdictions participating.
The NFIP has two main policy goals: (1) to provide access to primary flood insurance, thereby allowing
for the transfer of some of the financial risk from property owners to the federal government, and (2) to
mitigate and reduce the nation's comprehensive flood risk through the development and implementation
of floodplain management standards. A longer-term objective of the NFIP is to reduce federal expenditure
on disaster assistance after floods. The NFIP engages in many noninsurance activities in the public
interest: it identifies and maps flood hazards, disseminates flood-risk information through flood maps,
requires community land-use and building-code standards, contributes to community resilience by
providing a mechanism to fund rebuilding after a flood, and offers grants and incentive programs for
household- and community-level investments in flood-risk reduction.
FEMA  introduced a new pricing methodology in April 2022, known as Risk Rating 2.0, which
represents the biggest change to the way the NFIP calculates premiums since the program began. Under
the change, premiums for individual properties are based on their actual flood risk rather than flood zones.


Structure of the NFIP

The NFIP is managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) through its
subcomponent, the Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration. Communities are not legally
required to participate in the program; they participate voluntarily to obtain access to NFIP flood
insurance. Communities choosing to participate in the NFIP are required to adopt land-use and control
measures with effective enforcement provisions and to regulate development in the floodplain. FEMA has

                                                               Congressional Research Service
                                                               https://crsreports.congress.gov
                                                                                    IN11049

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