“I am glad Congress renewed the National Flood Insurance Program, which provides critical relief to citizens who reside in flood-prone communities,” said Ross. “Heavy flooding is a common occurrence in Arkansas, and Arkansas’s families need the support of this insurance program to help them restore their lives when this unfortunate event happens.” 

The National Flood Insurance Program authorizes $40 million for a pilot program that seeks to reduce repeated payments to owners of a few relatively flood-prone properties. Roughly 4.4 million homes and businesses are covered by federal flood insurance, but some 48,000 of those properties have experienced two or more flood claims within a 10-year period. These “repetitive-loss” properties cost the federal government about $200 million each year.  

Congress created the National Flood Insurance program in 1968 to provide flood insurance to communities that chose to participate. The program is funded through homeowner premiums, but backed by the U.S. government through credit lines with the Treasury Department. The program taps those lines of credit when flood losses are large.