The Flooding Prevention, Assessment, and Restoration Act of 2023 would enable agricultural producers and rural communities to lead on innovative solutions that address flooding at a watershed level. By advancing flood solutions at the watershed level, agricultural producers along with local communities, states, and the federal government are best positioned to save lives, manage risk, and protect property. H.R.5250 opens the door for communities to consider long-term resilience options while recovering from a flood disaster, unlocks resources for communities in limited-resource areas to strengthen aging infrastructure, and equips producers with actionable data about the flood vulnerability facing America’s farmlands.
The Flooding Prevention, Assessment, and Restoration Act would:
- Improve flexibility in the USDA NRCS Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) Program by allowing project sponsors to use federal funds to improve flood protection above the level that existed at the time of the disaster. Current rules state that federal funding can only be used to repair a structure to the condition it was at during the time of disaster, meaning that resources cannot be targeted to prevent repetitive losses during future flood events.
- Direct USDA to conduct a national agriculture flood vulnerability study to assess the flood risk facing America’s farmlands and rural communities. This study would analyze the economic losses of crops and livestock from flooding, and how the use and conservation of agricultural land affects flooding downstream.
- Increase the federal cost share for the Watershed Rehabilitation Program up to 90% for communities and projects in limited-resource areas. For many rural and low-resource communities, a 65% local cost share requirement poses a significant barrier that prevents them from initiating rehabilitation of aged, high-hazard dams, presenting a significant risk to agricultural production and rural communities. An increased federal cost share would allow local project sponsors greater access to federal resources to initiate rehabilitation work.
Featured image at top: summer sunset on the Susquehanna River
Credit: John Baggaley, Getty Images
