Congress expands federal flood relief for basement damage and contents
H.R. 4774 — Fix Our Flooded Basements Act of 2025 · Filed by Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) · 22 cosponsors · Introduced Jul 25, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill expands federal disaster relief for homeowners whose basements flood. It requires FEMA to cover basement repairs, mold/moisture damage, and personal property losses without limiting assistance to only 'habitable' rooms or damage that affects safety. It also expands a group flood insurance policy to cover basement contents and allows people outside flood zones to buy it, while excluding insurance premiums and mitigation costs from FEMA's assistance caps.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is a straightforward expansion of federal disaster assistance eligibility and coverage limits for flood-damaged basements under existing Stafford Act authority. It removes prior restrictions and increases what FEMA must cover.
What the text implies
- Excluding mitigation and insurance premiums from assistance caps may create incentive for homeowners to defer preventive measures, increasing future disaster costs.
- Expanding Group Flood Insurance eligibility to those outside special flood hazard areas may increase FEMA's long-term exposure if climate patterns shift flood risk.
- Basement coverage parity with Standard Flood Insurance Policy may increase claims volume and administrative burden on FEMA, potentially affecting response times for other disaster types.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Homeowners in flood-prone areas gain expanded federal disaster relief for basement damage, mold remediation, and personal property replacement without prior caps or restrictions. The bill also makes flood insurance more accessible and affordable through expanded group policies, reducing out-of-pocket costs for disaster recovery.
Who stands to gain
- homeowners with flood-damaged basements
- flood insurance policyholders
Named in the bill
FEMA, Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, National Flood Insurance Program, Federal Emergency Management Agency, 44 CFR sections 61.17, 206.119, 59.1
Where it stands
22 cosponsors: 22 Democrats.
- Jul 23, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jul 25, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Financial Services and House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and in addition to the Committee on Financial…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $650,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 15 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Rashida Tlaib, the sponsor, reported $47,050 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- National Electrical Manufacturers Association — $650,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (4,173 characters) on Nov 2, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,927 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-11-02.
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