Floodplain Enhancement and Recovery Act

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6256 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 6256

  To amend the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014 to 
    address ecosystem restoration projects, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           November 21, 2025

    Mr. Downing (for himself, Ms. Bynum, Mr. Steil, and Ms. Perez) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                           Financial Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014 to 
    address ecosystem restoration projects, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Floodplain Enhancement and Recovery 
Act''.

SEC. 2. ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION PROJECTS.

    (a) In General.--Section 22 of the Homeowner Flood Insurance 
Affordability Act of 2014 (42 U.S.C. 4101e) is amended to read as 
follows:

``SEC. 22. ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION PROJECTS.

    ``(a) Definition.--In this section, the term `ecosystem restoration 
project' means a project proposed for the primary purpose of 
manipulating the physical, chemical, or biological characteristics of a 
site with the goal of--
            ``(1) recovering natural and beneficial functions to a 
        former or degraded aquatic resource or floodplain; or
            ``(2) enhancing, accelerating, reclaiming, or improving a 
        specific, natural, and beneficial function of an aquatic 
        resource or floodplain.
    ``(b) Exemption From Fees for Flood Hazard Change Requests for 
Ecosystem Restoration Projects.--Notwithstanding any other provision of 
law, a requester shall be exempt from submitting a review or processing 
fee for a request for a flood insurance rate map change based on an 
ecosystem restoration project.
    ``(c) Exemption From Conditional Approval for Certain Ecosystem 
Restoration Projects.--A community may permit an ecosystem restoration 
project within an adopted regulatory floodway that would result in an 
increase in base flood elevations, if--
            ``(1) a professional engineer uses the best judgment of the 
        engineer to determine that the cumulative effect of the 
        proposed ecosystem restoration project, when combined with all 
        other existing development, will not increase the water surface 
        elevation of the base flood by more than 1 foot (or a greater 
        amount or metric determined appropriate by the Administrator);
            ``(2) no insurable structure or any critical infrastructure 
        is located in an area that would be adversely impacted by the 
        increased base flood elevation; and
            ``(3) not later than 180 days after the date on which the 
        ecosystem restoration project is completed, the community 
        submits to the Administrator an analysis regarding the changed 
        conditions caused by the ecosystem restoration project.
    ``(d) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this section may be 
construed to affect the procedure (as in effect on the day before the 
date of enactment of the Floodplain Enhancement and Recovery Act) for 
providing notification to a landowner with respect to development in a 
regulatory floodway.''.
    (b) Technical and Conforming Amendment.--The table of contents for 
the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014 (Public Law 
113-89) is amended by striking the item relating to section 22 and 
inserting the following:

``Sec. 22. Ecosystem restoration projects.''.
    (c) Guidance.--
            (1) Definitions.--In this subsection:
                    (A) Administrator.--The term ``Administrator'' 
                means the Administrator of the Federal Emergency 
                Management Agency.
                    (B) Covered agencies.--The term ``covered 
                agencies'' means Federal and State natural resource 
                agencies, as determined by the Administrator.
            (2) Issuance.--Not later than 180 days after the date of 
        enactment of this Act, and after consultation with the heads of 
        covered agencies, the Administrator shall issue guidance to 
        implement section 22 of the Homeowner Flood Insurance 
        Affordability Act of 2014 (42 U.S.C. 4101e), as amended by this 
        section.
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