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Public Comment Period on the National Flood Insurance Program’s Community Rating System
FEMA has published a Request for Information notice in the Federal Register seeking public comment on the National Flood Insurance Program’s Community Rating System (CRS) program.
이벤트 세부 정보
Submit Your Comments
FEMA posted in the Federal Register a Request for Information (RFI) that contains a list of questions about the Community Rating System program. Answers to the included questions will assist FEMA as it considers ways to modify, streamline and create innovative measures to improve the program.
Submit your comments through the Federal eRulemaking Portal using Docket ID: FEMA -2021-0021. The comment period is open from Aug. 23- Oct. 22, 2021.
Please follow the instructions on the page and contact the Regulations.gov Help Desk if you have technical issues.
Public Meeting Schedule
In addition to written comments, FEMA will host three public meeting to collect verbal comments from the public, including private sector, government and non-government entities.
The objectives of these public meeting are to:
- Provide the public with information about this program review and improvement effort, called “CRS Next”
- Provide the public with information about the exploratory questions included in the corresponding Federal Register Request for Information
- Provide the public with information about how to access the notice and submit written comments
- Provide the public an opportunity to provide verbal feedback
All public meeting are open to the public and will cover the same content. Participants must register in advance and will be confirmed on a first-come, first-served basis. Participants will be emailed a unique URL link to join the public meeting once their registration is confirmed. Participant links should not be shared with others.
During registration, a participant may indicate a desire to provide verbal comment for the record during a public meeting. Verbal comments from stakeholders will be limited to 2 minutes and become part of the official record.
The content is the same for each session. Public meeting participation is limited to 1,000 attendees. A transcript of each session will be available at a later date.
- The first public meeting will be held from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, Sept. 7.
- The second public meeting will be held from 1 – 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, Sept. 8.
- The third public meeting will be held from 2 – 4 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, Sept. 9.
In addition to providing verbal comments at the public meetings, any interested person can submit written comments to the Federal Register notice. Written comments can be submitted until Sept. 22, 2021.
Background
Floods are the most common and most destructive natural disaster in the United States. Every year, flooding causes hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to homes and businesses around the United States. Standard homeowners and commercial property insurance policies do not cover flood losses.
To meet the need for this vital coverage, FEMA administers the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which offers reasonably priced flood insurance to all properties in communities that comply with minimum standards for floodplain management. To be eligible for an NFIP flood insurance policy, a property must first be in a community that participates in the NFIP.
To qualify for the NFIP, a community adopts and enforces a floodplain management ordinance to regulate development in the floodplain. The objective of the ordinance is to minimize the potential for flood damage to development. Today, over 22,500 communities in the United States participate in the NFIP.
The Community Rating System is a voluntary incentive program that recognizes and encourages floodplain management practices that exceed the minimum requirements of the National Flood Insurance Program. The agency is evaluating the Community Rating System’s potential to ongoing support of state, local, tribal and territorial community goals and needs around floodplain management.
This notice is to better align understanding of flood risk and flood risk approaches and to incentivize communities to manage and lower their flood risk.
FEMA is seeking input on ways the agency can improve the CRS program: (1) to better align the CRS program with the improved understanding of flood risk and flood risk approaches that have developed since the program’s inception; (2) to better incentivize communities and policyholders to become more resilient and to not only manage, but to lower their vulnerability to flood risk; and (3) to support the sound financial framework of the NFIP.
The full notice and questions FEMA is asking for comment can be viewed on the Federal Register or by viewing Docket ID FEMA-2021-0021 at Regulations.gov.