| Date | September 10, 2012 (112th Congress, 2nd Session) |
| Staff Contact | Jon Hiler |
On Monday, September 10, 2012, the House is scheduled to consider H.R. 6186, a bill to require a study of voluntary community-based flood insurance options and how such options could be incorporated into the national flood insurance program, under a suspension of the rules, requiring a two-thirds majority vote for passage. The bill was introduced by Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) on July 25, 2012, and referred to the Committee on Financial Services.
H.R. 6186 would require the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to conduct a study to assess options, methods, and strategies for making available voluntary, community-based flood insurance policies through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), and report its recommendations for implementation to Congress within 18 months of enactment.
The bill would also require the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to analyze FEMA's report and submit its comments or recommendations to Congress within 6 months of the report’s issuance.
This provision was adopted as an amendment to H.R 1309, the Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2011, by voice vote at the full Committee level and approved by the House as part of H.R. 1309 in 2011. It was also subsequently passed by the House as part of H.R. 3630, H.R. 5652, and H.R. 5740, as well as initially included in the original version of the Conference Report for H.R. 4348, although none of those measures became law.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has stated, “The costs of those studies would be discretionary and insignificant (i.e. less than $500,000) in each year.”