Sponsors (2)
The bill increases transparency and improves federal/private flood-insurance data for buyers, insurers, and FEMA—helping risk assessment and underwriting—at the cost of substantial privacy risks and a realistic chance of higher premiums or coverage restrictions for property owners.
Homebuyers, renters, and property owners will be able to obtain property-specific flood-claims history (number and dollar value) so they can better assess flood risk before purchase or lease.
Insurers (private and NFIP) gain access to combined NFIP and private claims/policy data, enabling more accurate underwriting and rate-setting which could improve risk-based pricing and insurer solvency.
Sharing insurer data with FEMA and depositing collected fees into the National Flood Insurance Fund (NFIF) can strengthen federal flood-insurance data resources and analytics without directly charging property owners.
Homeowners, renters, and buyers will have property addresses, coordinates, and claim details shared with private insurers, creating substantial privacy risks and potential misuse of sensitive location and loss history.
Property owners and small-business owners could face higher premiums or coverage denials because insurers can use granular NFIP and private-claims data for underwriting, and insurers may pass the administrative fees deposited into the NFIF on to policyholders.
Treating these disclosures as a 'routine use' under the Privacy Act may limit individuals' ability to control, challenge, or seek redress for federal sharing of their records.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires FEMA to share NFIP and related property-level claims/policy data with insurers under use-limited agreements and to provide claim-history info to purchasers, lessees, and owners.
Introduced February 4, 2026 by Madeleine Dean · Last progress February 4, 2026
Requires FEMA to create a data-exchange program that shares detailed NFIP and related flood insurance policy and claims information with private insurance companies that sign data-sharing agreements. Those agreements limit use of the data to underwriting, rate-setting, and claims adjustment and bar marketing; participating insurers must also provide their own policy/claim data in a FEMA-prescribed form and may be charged a fee deposited into the National Flood Insurance Fund. The Administrator must also give prospective purchasers, current owners, or lessees property-specific information about the number and dollar value of past flood claims (including private and NFIP claims) and whether mandatory flood insurance purchase requirements apply. Disclosures made under the program are treated as routine uses under the Privacy Act.