Sneak Preview: FEMA To Provide $800M in FY 2022 Flood Mitigation Funds
(The following was excerpted from a recent Thompson Grants Compliance Expert article.) The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is making $800 million in federal fiscal year (FY) 2022 funding — five times more than it did in FY 2021 — available to states, U.S. territories and Indian tribal governments under the Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) program (Assistance Listing No. No. 97.029), aimed at reducing and eliminating the risk of repetitive flood damage to buildings insured under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
Authorized under section 1366 of the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968, as amended (Pub. L. 90-448) (42 U.S.C. §4104c), the Flood Mitigation program supports the federal goal of strengthening national preparedness and resilience. FY 2022 funds for the program were provided under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) (Pub. L. 117-58).
In a recent notice of funding opportunity (NOFO), FEMA stressed the importance of the program by alluding to “the growing flood hazards associated with climate change, and of the need for flood hazard risk mitigation activities that promote climate adaptation, equity and resilience with respect to flooding. These include both acute extreme weather events and chronic stressors which have been observed and are expected to increase in intensity and frequency in the future.”
The agency also aims to promote equity in the delivery of FMA funds in line with the Biden administration’s Justice40 Initiative, under which the program will prioritize assistance that benefits disadvantaged communities, and will use the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Social Vulnerability Index as a priority scoring criterion.
The agency announced that it is dividing the available funds into three categories. First, it will set aside up to $60 million for capability and capacity-building (C&CB) activities to reduce flood claims against the NFIP. Such activities will be prioritized in this order — (1) multi-hazard mitigation plans; (2) technical assistance; (3) project scoping; and (4) additional C&CB activities (e.g., developing partnerships, enhancing local floodplain management, establishing a severe repetitive loss/repetitive loss strategy plan).
FEMA then will award up to $340 million for localized flood risk reduction projects that address community flood risk for the purpose of reducing NFIP flood claim payments. It also will award up to $400 million to projects that mitigate the risk of flooding to individual NFIP insured structures.
(The full version of this story has now been made available to all for a limited time here.)
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