U.S. President Obama budgets US$400 million for flood risk mapping

United States President Barack Obama is proposing an 85% increase in funding for flood risk mapping for America’s overland flood insurance program, plus a seven-fold increase in a grant program intended to support flood risk reduction measures.

President Obama’s budget request to Congress for the 2016 fiscal year, released Monday, includes US$400 million for National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) risk mapping efforts, “an increase of $184 million over current funding levels.”

Every February the U.S. presidents submits a comprehensive budget request to Congress. The Senate and House of Representatives then have committee hearings. Appropriation bills require approval of Congress.

An increase to NFIP risk mapping would “further support efforts to help communities and businesses understand what areas pose flood risks,” President Obama states in the budget document.

NFIP is a U.S. federal program designed to let residential and commercial owners and tenants obtain flood coverage. The insurance is written by the private sector, though rates do not differ among carriers and agents. In some cases premiums are subsidized. In order to qualify for coverage under NFIP, a property must be in a community that has joined the NFIP and agrees to enforce floodplain management standards.

State parks/Delta to benefit in Obama budget; stricter flood standards for fed projects, among #cawater stories on http://t.co/cuh6Z8EbJH

— Water Ed Foundation (@WaterEdFdn) February 3, 2015

Insurance policies under NFIP cover building and/or contents.

President Obama’s 2016 budget also proposes $50 million in funding for the Regional Coastal Resilience Grants, administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Those grants – for lower levels of government as well as for private and non-governmental organizations – would “support activities such as vulnerability assessments, regional ocean partnerships, and development and implementation of adaptation strategies.”

Another $50 million program, at the Department of the Interior, “will be modeled after the agency’s Hurricane Sandy Competitive Grant Program and will expand the footprint of healthy ecosystems to deliver valuable ecosystem services, including flood attenuation and storm risk reduction, to nearby communities.”

The budget also includes $200 million for the Federal Emergency Management Administration’s Pre-disaster Mitigation Grant Program. That would be “an increase of $175 million over current funding levels,” President Obama notes.

The grant program “will predominately support mitigation planning, facilities hardening, and nonstructural risk reduction measures, such as buyouts and elevation of structures.”