HR5500-119

Introduced

To make administrative reforms to the National Flood Insurance Program to increase fairness and accuracy and protect the taxpayer from program fraud and abuse, and for other purposes.

119th Congress Introduced Sep 18, 2025

Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.

Summary

What This Bill Does

The National Flood Insurance Program Administrative Reform Act of 2025 overhauls how FEMA administers flood insurance claims and policies. It creates a pilot program to investigate preexisting property conditions that could affect claims, establishes strict fraud penalties, strengthens policyholder appeal rights, and requires claims decisions within 120 days. The bill also mandates disclosure of technical assistance reports to policyholders and improves policy transparency through standardized disclosure sheets.

Who Benefits and How

Flood insurance policyholders gain stronger appeal rights with 120-day decision deadlines, access to technical reports used in claims decisions, and clearer policy disclosures explaining coverage limits. The Office of Flood Insurance Advocate receives staffing requirements to better serve consumers. Write Your Own insurance companies can enter joint defense agreements with FEMA and voluntarily participate in preexisting conditions investigations.

Who Bears the Burden and How

FEMA faces new administrative requirements including appeals process management, fraud referrals, litigation oversight, and mandatory disclosure of technical reports. Write Your Own companies must comply with litigation oversight and may face denied reimbursement for unreasonable legal expenses. Insurance professionals (engineers, adjusters, attorneys) face fraud penalties including referral to state licensing agencies for false statements.

Key Provisions

  • 120-day deadline for initial claims decisions (extendable for extraordinary circumstances)
  • Formal appeals process with written decisions required within 120 days
  • Fraud penalties for knowingly false engineering reports, claims adjustments, or filings
  • Mandatory disclosure of technical assistance reports to policyholders upon request
  • Standard disclosure sheets explaining coverage in plain language

Evidence Chain:

This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers.

At a Glance

What This Bill Does

Makes administrative reforms to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) to increase fairness and accuracy for policyholders, enhance fraud prevention, and improve claims processing transparency.

Key Policy Areas

Insurance, Consumer Protection, Fraud Prevention, Emergency Management

Primary Purpose

Makes administrative reforms to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) to increase fairness and accuracy for policyholders, enhance fraud prevention, and improve claims processing transparency.

Policy Domains

Insurance Consumer Protection Fraud Prevention Emergency Management

NFIP Administrative Reforms

Identified Gains
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
  • Flood insurance policyholders
  • Office of Flood Insurance Advocate
  • Write Your Own companies (joint defense)
Model: N/A | Version: bill_summary_v2 | Source: ih

Contextual inference, no direct clause citation

Identified Costs
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
  • FEMA (administrative requirements)
  • Write Your Own companies (oversight)
  • Insurance professionals (fraud liability)
Model: N/A | Version: bill_summary_v2 | Source: ih

Contextual inference, no direct clause citation

Legislative Progress

Introduced
Introduced Committee Passed
Sep 18, 2025

Ms. Velázquez introduced the following bill; which was referred to …

Stakeholder Effects

cui bono?

How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.

Government
17 mentions across 16 clauses
+3 positive -14 negative

Attorney General, FEMA, FEMA Administrator

Positive-direction: Legal and regulatory interpreters, NFIP (cost control), National Flood Insurance Fund

Negative-direction: Attorney General, FEMA, FEMA Administrator, FEMA claims processing, Federal lending regulators (OCC, FDIC, Fed, NCUA), Government Accountability Office

Financial Services
16 mentions across 13 clauses
+8 positive -7 negative ?1 uncertain

Claims adjusters and insurance professionals, Engineers, claims adjusters, and technical report preparers, Insurance industry professionals (agents, actuaries, claims specialists)

Write Your Own companies, Write Your Own insurance companies face effects in multiple directions

Positive-direction: Insurance industry professionals (agents, actuaries, claims specialists), Insurance industry stakeholders, Lenders and mortgage servicers, Write Your Own companies (joint defense benefit)

Negative-direction: Claims adjusters and insurance professionals, Engineers, claims adjusters, and technical report preparers

General Public
11 mentions across 10 clauses
+9 positive -1 negative ?1 uncertain

NFIP policyholders, NFIP policyholders (claims certainty), NFIP policyholders (fraud protection)

Positive-direction: NFIP policyholders, NFIP policyholders (claims certainty), NFIP policyholders (fraud protection)

Negative-direction: NFIP policyholders requesting inspections

State & Local Government
1 mention across 1 clause
-1 negative

State licensing agencies

Professional Services
1 mention across 1 clause
-1 negative

Engineers, surveyors, architects providing technical reports

Nonprofits
1 mention across 1 clause
+1 positive

Consumer advocacy organizations

17/22
sections analyzed
Full impact breakdown

Bill Structure & Actor Mappings

Who is "The Secretary" in each section?

Domains
Insurance Consumer Protection Fraud Prevention
Actor Mappings
"the_administrator"
→ FEMA Administrator
"the_attorney_general"
→ Attorney General

Key Definitions

Terms defined in this bill

3 terms
"knowingly" §3b

Having actual awareness of the prohibitions and acting deliberately in violation of such prohibitions

"policyholder" §8c1

A person or persons shown as an insured on the declarations page of a policy for flood insurance coverage

"technical assistance report" §8c2

A report created for the purpose of furnishing technical assistance to an insurance claims adjuster, including by engineers, surveyors, salvors, architects, and certified public accountants

We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.

Learn more about our methodology