Flood Insurance Transparency Act of 2025
The Flood Insurance Transparency Act of 2025 would amend the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 to dramatically expand public access to data and information related to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). It requires FEMA (the Administrator) to publicly release all data, models, assessments, and tools used to assess flood risk and to establish elevations and premiums. This includes data on individual properties, policy and claims history (with limitations on terms and dates), and indicators of mitigation actions and repeated losses. The bill also creates an open-source data system for immediate public access and, within one year, a publicly searchable database for each NFIP-participating community containing compliance status, hazard area data, and counts of affected properties. Importantly, it provides protections to prevent disclosure of personally identifiable information. The measure aims to transform the NFIP into a richer data resource for researchers and the public, promoting transparency, research, and technology development in flood risk understanding. It also imposes new reporting and disclosure requirements on communities and FEMA, potentially influencing policy discussions around risk, mitigation, and program oversight.
Key Points
- 1New public data regime: The bill adds Section 1349 to require FEMA to make publicly available data, models, assessments, and other information used to assess flood risk and determine elevations and premiums, including property-level risk data, policy and claims information (with limited fields), and mitigation/condition indicators.
- 2Open-source data system: FEMA must establish an open-source data system so all required information is accessible immediately by electronic means.
- 3Publicly searchable community database (within 1 year): A database for every NFIP-participating community must be created containing: compliance status and enforcement actions for the community; number of pre/post-FIRM properties; total current and historical claims located outside SFHAs; total number of multiple-loss properties; and the portion of the community within SFHAs (as a percentage and in square miles).
- 4Data granularity and identification: Information should be accessible at the ZIP Code or census block level and must include the community name and state for each property.
- 5Privacy protections: Disclosures must avoid personally identifiable information about property owners, in line with the Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. 552a).