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Affordability of National Flood Insurance Program Premiums: Report 2 (2016)

Chapter: Appendix B: Recent Reports Produced by the Government Accountability Office and the Congressional Research Service

« Previous: Appendix A: Affordability of National Flood Insurance Program Premiums: Report 1 Summary
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Recent Reports Produced by the Government Accountability Office and the Congressional Research Service." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Affordability of National Flood Insurance Program Premiums: Report 2. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/21848.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Recent Reports Produced by the Government Accountability Office and the Congressional Research Service." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Affordability of National Flood Insurance Program Premiums: Report 2. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/21848.
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TABLE B-1 Recent studies undertaken and reports produced by the Government Accountability Office and the Congressional Research Service between 2011 and 2015.

Year Produced By Title Key Questions and What Was Done
2011 GAO FEMA: Action needed to improve the administration of the National Flood Insurance Program Extent to which FEMA’s management affect NFIP administration; lessons learned from canceling FEMA’s attempt to modernize NFIP’s insurance management system; limitations on FEMA’s authority that could affect NFIP’s financial stability.
2012 CRSa National Flood Insurance Program: background, challenges, and financial status NFIP borrowing, flood insurance premiums, repetitive loss, mandatory purchase, mapping, floodplain management, reauthorization of NFIP, and a suite of policy options.
2013 GAO Flood Insurance: More information needed on subsidized properties Number, location, and characteristics of properties that receive subsidized rates compared with full-risk rate properties; information needed to estimate the historic cost of subsidies and establish rates for previously subsidized policies that reflect risk; options to reduce the financial impact of remaining subsidized policies.
2013 CRSa The National Flood Insurance Program: Status and remaining issues for Congress Premium subsidies, repetitive loss, participation rates, hazard maps, floodplain management regulations, risk assessment and mapping, hazard and disaster assistance, options for managing and financing flood risk.
2014b GAO Flood Insurance: Forgone premiums cannot be measured and FEMA should validate and monitor data system changes Examined the forgone premiums associated with subsidies during 2002-2013 along with data reliability issues.
2014a GAO Flood Insurance: Strategies for increasing private sector involvement Conditions needed for private-sector involvement; strategies for increasing private-sector involvement.
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Recent Reports Produced by the Government Accountability Office and the Congressional Research Service." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Affordability of National Flood Insurance Program Premiums: Report 2. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/21848.
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Year Produced By Title Key Questions and What Was Done
2014c GAO National Flood Insurance Program: Progress made on contract management but monitoring and reporting could be improved Examined: FEMA’s progress in updating its process for monitoring NFIP contractors since previous reports, the extent to which FEMA followed its monitoring process for the largest NFIP contractors.
2014d GAO Hurricane Sandy FEMA: FEMA has improved disaster aid verification but could act to further limit improper assistance Discussed: the extent to which FEMA implemented controls to help prevent individuals and household program payments that are at risk of being improper or potentially fraudulent; the challenges FEMA and states faced obtaining information to help prevent individuals and household payments from duplicating or overlapping with other sources in its response to Hurricane Sandy.
2014e GAO Overview of GAO’s past work on the NFIP Summarized work on finances, premium setting, community and property owner participation, flood mapping, flood mitigation, administration, and information management.
2015a GAO Flood Insurance: Status of FEMA’s implementation of the Biggert-Waters Act, as amended Described: FEMA’s management of the Act’s implementation and associated challenges; the status of FEMA’s implementation of selected requirements from the Act.
2015b GAO High-Risk Series: An update GAO maintains a high-risk program to focus attention on government operations that it identifies as high risk due to their greater vulnerabilities. Five criteria for removal are leadership commitment, agency capacity, an action plan, monitoring efforts, and demonstrated progress.

aAuthor on both reports was R. O. King.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Recent Reports Produced by the Government Accountability Office and the Congressional Research Service." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Affordability of National Flood Insurance Program Premiums: Report 2. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/21848.
×

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Recent Reports Produced by the Government Accountability Office and the Congressional Research Service." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Affordability of National Flood Insurance Program Premiums: Report 2. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/21848.
×
Page 105
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Recent Reports Produced by the Government Accountability Office and the Congressional Research Service." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Affordability of National Flood Insurance Program Premiums: Report 2. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/21848.
×
Page 106
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Recent Reports Produced by the Government Accountability Office and the Congressional Research Service." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Affordability of National Flood Insurance Program Premiums: Report 2. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/21848.
×
Page 107
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Recent Reports Produced by the Government Accountability Office and the Congressional Research Service." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Affordability of National Flood Insurance Program Premiums: Report 2. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/21848.
×
Page 108
Next: Appendix C: Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 - Section 100236 »
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When Congress authorized the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) in 1968, it intended for the program to encourage community initiatives in flood risk management, charge insurance premiums consistent with actuarial pricing principles, and encourage the purchase of flood insurance by owners of flood prone properties, in part, by offering affordable premiums. The NFIP has been reauthorized many times since 1968, most recently with the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 (BW 2012). In this most recent reauthorization, Congress placed a particular emphasis on setting flood insurance premiums following actuarial pricing principles, which was motivated by a desire to ensure future revenues were adequate to pay claims and administrative expenses. BW 2012 was designed to move the NFIP towards risk-based premiums for all flood insurance policies. The result was to be increased premiums for some policyholders that had been paying less than NFIP risk-based premiums and to possibly increase premiums for all policyholders.

Recognition of this possibility and concern for the affordability of flood insurance is reflected in sections of the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014 (HFIAA 2014). These sections called on FEMA to propose a draft affordability framework for the NFIP after completing an analysis of the efforts of possible programs for offering "means-tested assistance" to policyholders for whom higher rates may not be affordable.

BW 2012 and HFIAA 2014 mandated that FEMA conduct a study, in cooperation with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which would compare the costs of a program of risk-based rates and means-tested assistance to the current system of subsidized flood insurance rates and federally funded disaster relief for people without coverage. Production of two reports was agreed upon to fulfill this mandate. This second report proposes alternative approaches for a national evaluation of affordability program policy options and includes lessons for the design of a national study from a proof-of-concept pilot study.

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