PCAP - Presidential Climate Action Project

Direct the federal Climate Change Science Program and/or the National ScienceFoundation to project future taxpayer exposure under the National Flood InsuranceProgram, based on projected impacts of climate change on the frequency and intensity ofcoastal and riverine flooding. Mitigate budget impacts on flood insurance program. D-2Anticipate and mitigate the federal budget impacts of climate change on the National FloodInsurance Program (NFIP). The federal government operates the National Flood InsuranceProgram . . . Growing federal expenditures to compensate property owners for flood losses(more than $150 billion in taxpayer-funded disaster costs after Katrina) could affect thegovernment’s ability to fund other vital activities . . . PCAP Report 11:7Background. The Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (“FEMA”) isauthorized by the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 to administer the National FloodInsurance Program. 399 The Interagency Climate Change Science Program (“CCSP”) is anexecutive branch committee that serves the dual function of integrating research pursuant to theUnited States Global Research Act of 1990 (“Act”) 400 and research conducted under PresidentBush’s Climate Change Research Initiative (“CCRI”). 401 The National Science Foundation(“NSF”) is an independent agency that provides funding and grants for all fields of science andengineering with the exception of medical research. 402Statutes. The National Flood Insurance Act of 1969, as amended, authorizes the administratorof FEMA to “establish and carry out” the NFIP. 403 The NFIP is intended to create a “reasonablemethod of sharing risk of flood losses.” 404 The Act requires the Administrator of FEMA tocreate a flood insurance advisory committee to advise the Administrator “in the preparation ofany regulations prescribed in accordance with this chapter and with respect to policy mattersarising in the administration of this chapter . . . .” 405399 42 U.S.C. § 4001 et seq. “National Flood Insurance Act of 1968.”400 See 15 U.S.C. § 2933 et seq. (§ 2921 of the Act creates the “Committee on Earth and Environmental Sciences” asan executive branch committee tasked with implementing research under the Act. The transfer of these functions tothe CCSP was implicitly recognized by the General Accounting Office in a 2005 report. See GAO-05-338R“Climate Change Assessment,” page 2 (“CCSP is now responsible for producing and submitting the climatechange assessment”). The court in Center for Biological Diversity v. Brennan also recognized this aspect of theCCSP’s functions. See Slip Copy 2007 WL 2408901 (N.D. Cal. 2007).401 According to a CCSP fact sheet, the CCSP resulted from cabinet reorganization in 2002 intended to “improve thegovernment wide management of climate science and climate-related technology development.” See Fact SheetCCSP-1 available at http://www.climatescience.gov/infosheets/factsheet1/CCSP-1-Overview14jan2006.pdf.402 See NSF website (www.nsf.gov/about/), last visited June 25, 2008. See also 42 U.S.C. § 1861 et seq.403 42 U.S.C. § 4001.404 Id.405 Id. at § 4025(a)CEES 105 | P age