Organizations Involved: Environmental Defense Fund
Source: U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
Abstract
This testimony from a Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs hearing the reauthorization and reform of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) highlights the ways in which the NFIP can improve community resilience to climate change and extreme weather events. Flood insurance has a critical role to play in promoting resilience by protecting households and
businesses against negative financial shocks, speeding disaster recovery, and lowering risks before a disaster through financial incentives and after a disaster through greater resources for resilient rebuilding. All households need access to these benefits of insurance. This can be guaranteed by adoption of a means-tested assistance program to help lower-income households with the cost of flood insurance. In addition, as flood risk grows in the coming years, risk reduction is going to become more important as a key complement to insurance.
