42 U.S.C. § 4104c — Mitigation assistance

(a) Authority. The Administrator^* must run a program using money made available from the National Flood Mitigation Fund under section 4104d. The program provides financial assistance to States and communities for planning and carrying out activities that reduce flood-damage risk to structures covered by flood-insurance contracts under this chapter. The assistance must be available as follows: (1) grants to States and communities for mitigation activities; (2) grants to States and communities for mitigation activities that reduce flood damage to severe repetitive loss structures; and (3) direct grants to property owners for mitigation activities that reduce flood damage to individual structures for which at least two loss claims have been paid under this chapter’s flood insurance, if the Administrator, after consulting the State^* and community, determines that neither the State nor the community where the structure is located has the capacity to manage those grants.

(b) Eligibility for mitigation assistance. To receive assistance for mitigation activities, a State or community must develop a flood-risk mitigation plan, and the Administrator must approve it. The plan, called a “mitigation plan” in this section, must describe the activities to be carried out with the assistance, be consistent with the Administrator’s criteria under section 4102, provide for reducing flood losses to structures for which flood-insurance contracts are available under this chapter, and may be included in a multihazard mitigation plan. The mitigation plan must also be consistent with a comprehensive strategy for mitigation activities in the area affected by the plan. The State or community must adopt that strategy after a public hearing.

(c) Eligible mitigation activities. (1) Requirement of consistency with approved mitigation plan. Money provided under this section may be used only for mitigation activities that are consistent with mitigation plans approved by the Administrator and identified under paragraph (4). The Administrator must provide assistance under this section to the extent money is available in the National Flood Mitigation Fund under appropriation Acts. The only stated limitation on providing that assistance is the absence of approvable mitigation plans.

(2) Requirements of technical feasibility, cost effectiveness, and interest of National Flood Insurance Fund. (A) In general. The Administrator may approve only activities that the Administrator determines either (i) are technically feasible and cost-effective, or (ii) will eliminate future payments from the National Flood Insurance Fund for severe repetitive loss structures through acquisition or relocation. (B) Considerations. When making that determination, the Administrator must consider recognized related benefits.

(3) Eligible activities. An approved mitigation plan may include: (A) demolishing or relocating a structure on land along the shore of a lake or other body of water, when an appropriate State or local land-use authority certifies that the structure faces imminent collapse or subsidence because of erosion or flooding; (B) elevating, relocating, demolishing, or floodproofing structures, including public structures, in areas with special flood hazards or other flood-risk areas; (C) a State or community acquiring properties, including public properties, in areas with special flood hazards or other flood-risk areas, and properties substantially damaged by flood, for public use, when the Administrator determines that the acquisition is consistent with sound land management and use in that area; (D) elevating, relocating, or floodproofing utilities, including equipment serving structures; (E) minor physical mitigation efforts that do not duplicate other Federal agencies’ flood-prevention activities, lessen the frequency or severity of flooding, and decrease predicted flood damage. These efforts do not include major flood-control projects such as dikes, levees, seawalls, groins, or jetties unless the Administrator specifically determines, when approving a mitigation plan, that they are the most cost-effective activities for the National Flood Mitigation Fund; (F) a State or community developing or updating mitigation plans that meet the Administrator’s planning criteria. Grants under this section may provide no more than $50,000 for a State mitigation plan or $25,000 for a community mitigation plan; (G) States providing technical assistance to communities and individuals to carry out eligible mitigation activities; (H) other activities the Administrator considers appropriate and specifies by regulation; (I) other mitigation activities not described in (A) through (G) or in regulations under (H), if the State or community’s mitigation plan describes them; and (J) regardless of the requirements in paragraphs (1) and (2) of subsection (d), technical assistance to communities to identify eligible activities, develop grant applications, and carry out grants awarded under this section, if the State applied for and received at least $1,000,000 in grants available under this section in the prior fiscal year. This assistance may not exceed $50,000 to any one State in a fiscal year.

(4) Eligibility of demolition and rebuilding of properties. The Administrator must treat demolishing and rebuilding properties to at least base-flood elevation, or higher if the Administrator, a State regulation, or a local ordinance requires it, as an eligible activity when the Administrator’s criteria are followed.

(d) Matching requirement. The Administrator may provide grants as follows: (1) for mitigation of severe repetitive loss structures, up to (A) 100 percent of all eligible costs when the activities are approved under subsection (c)(2)(A)(i), or (B) the expected savings to the National Flood Insurance Fund from expected avoided damage through acquisition or relocation when the activities are approved under subsection (c)(2)(A)(ii); (2) for repetitive loss structures, up to 90 percent of all eligible costs; and (3) for all other mitigation activities, up to 75 percent of all eligible costs.

(e) Recapture. (1) Noncompliance with plan. If the Administrator determines that a State or community receiving assistance has not carried out the activities described in its mitigation plan, the Administrator must recapture any unspent money and deposit it in the National Flood Mitigation Fund under section 4104d. (2) Failure to provide matching funds. If the Administrator determines that a State or community receiving assistance has not provided the matching funds required by subsection (d), the Administrator must recapture the unspent assistance that exceeds the amount of matching funds actually provided and deposit it in that Fund.

(f) Reports. No later than one year after July 6, 2012, and every two years after that, the Administrator must report to Congress on the status of mitigation activities carried out with assistance under this section.

(g) Failure to make grant award within five years. If the Administrator does not award a grant within five years after an application is filed, the application is considered denied. Money allocated for that application remains in the National Flood Mitigation Fund under section 4104d and must be made available for grants under this section.

(h) Definitions. (1) Community. “Community” means either (A) a political subdivision that has zoning and building-code jurisdiction over a particular area with special flood hazards and participates in the national flood insurance program^*, or (B) a State political subdivision or other authority designated by political subdivisions, all of which meet the requirements in (A), to administer mitigation grants for those political subdivisions. (2) Repetitive loss structure. This term has the meaning given in section 4121. (3) Severe repetitive loss structure. This means a structure covered by a flood-insurance contract available under this chapter that has flood-related damage for which either (i) four or more separate claims payments were made under this chapter’s flood insurance, each claim exceeded $5,000, and the claims together exceeded $20,000, or (ii) at least two separate claims payments were made under that coverage and the claims together exceeded the value of the insured structure.