Number: 1988-03
WHEREAS, the National Flood Insurance Program was created to reduce Federal expenditures for flood emergencies and prevent future loss of property and human life by guiding development away from flood-prone areas and distributing the costs of the program to its beneficiaries; and
WHEREAS, these goals have not been achieved in large part because such subsidized insurance provides a financial safety-net for development in high hazard coastal and riverine areas, encourages rebuilding, and consequent recurrent losses, and discourages relocation out of hazardous zones; and
WHEREAS, damages to coastal properties due to storms and floods are expected to cost between $6 and $8.7 billion annually by the year 2000; and
WHEREAS, the National Flood Insurance Program currently has a total liability of $168 billion, making it the largest liability of the United States government after Social Security, with average annual losses of $76.9 million; and
WHEREAS, structures in high hazard coastal and riverine areas may endanger the lives and property of residents, threaten adjacent properties, interfere with the beneficial natural processes of coastal and riverine ecosystems, and damage natural resources; and
WHEREAS, those who knowingly locate in high hazard and flood-prone areas should assume the full financial risk to property for locating there;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Wildlife Federation in annual meeting assembled March 17-20, 1988, in New Orleans, Louisiana that Congressional action be urged to restructure the National Flood Insurance Program. This restructuring should discontinue subsidization of development in flood-prone areas. The National Flood Insurance Program should be based on true actuarial rates for insurance. In addition, there should be a surcharge for repeated claims, and disincentives for reconstruction in hazardous zones.