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Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ natural disaster relief bills advance in Iowa Legislature
The proposal aims to streamline the assistance process for rebuilding after natural disasters like flooding and tornadoes in Iowa last year
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DES MOINES — Nearly a year after Iowa saw historic flooding and tornadoes, legislation proposed by Gov. Kim Reynolds would help fund and streamline the assistance process for rebuilding after natural disasters for impacted Iowans.
Last June, northwestern Iowa experienced record flooding that impacted dozens of communities and thousands of homes. Other parts of the state also were hit by natural disasters, with a total of 125 tornadoes touching down across the state.
The proposal introduced by Reynolds during her Condition of the State address in January would appropriate $13.6 million from the economic emergency fund to the Disaster Recovery Housing Assistance program to provide disaster aid to impacted Iowans.
“We faced devastating tornadoes and historic flooding that left families, farms, businesses, schools and communities reeling,” Reynolds said during her Condition of the State address. “To put it into perspective, Iowa was granted three presidential disaster declarations in just two months.”
On Tuesday, local government subcommittees in the Iowa House and Senate unanimously advanced Reynolds’ proposal, filed as House Study Bill 246 and Senate Study Bill 1188, with bipartisan support.
“Iowans across the state have experienced devastating tornadoes and flooding in 2024,” Molly Severn, Reynolds’ legislative liaison, said during the subcommittees. “As the state worked to assist those in need, it became clear that several changes to Iowa code were necessary to streamline our disaster assistance process that makes it easier for Iowans to get the help they needed as soon as possible.”
The proposal would create the Natural Hazard Mitigation Financing program, a revolving loan program that makes funds available to eligible entities to finance all or part of the costs of projects to build resiliency for future disasters. The program would be led by the state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and the Iowa Finance Authority.
It also would add $2 million to the Nuisance Property and Abandoned Building Fund to assist local communities in tearing down disaster-damaged buildings destroyed by the 2024 flooding and tornadoes that are beyond repair.
House Local Government committee chair Rep. Megan Jones, a Republican from Sioux Rapids whose district was impacted by flooding in 2024, signed on to advance the legislation.
“Anything that we can do to help prevent this disaster of unscrupulous actors coming in and trying to take advantage of people, I'm there for it,” Jones said during the subcommittee.
Democratic Sen. Zach Wahls, of Coralville, who served on the Senate local government subcommittee, also agreed to advance the Senate bill.
“These kinds of natural disasters, it seems like, are just getting more and more common and it's time to do something about it,” Wahls said.
What would the bill do?
Aside from putting money toward disaster aid for Iowans, Reynolds’ proposal also includes technical changes that would help streamline and speed up state disaster assistance.
One change would amend insurance regulations aiming to protect consumers and homeowners from unfair practices while assessing the damage to their property after a natural disaster. It would include requiring licenses for public adjusters, independent adjusters, appraisers and umpires.
During assessments of property damage, umpires serve as the middle party between a public insurance adjuster who works for the impacted policy holder and a private insurance adjuster who is a third party hired by an insurance company. Umpires currently don’t have to be licensed, but Reynolds’ proposal would require it to weed out those who treat homeowners unfairly in the process.
Dennis Tibben, representing the National Association of Public Insurance Adjusters, said the umpire licensing requirement is unnecessary, noting that roughly 3 percent of all claims go before public insurance adjusters and “bad actors” make up just a fraction of that group.
“Forty-eight other states have found a way to do this in contract,” Tibben said. “Iowa would be the first state to have this expansive form of licensure, and we believe that the other provisions of the legislation get at those handful of bad actors that we understand those provisions are seeking to address.”
Other changes in the bills include:
- Extending tax exclusions to disaster assistance for housing developers who receive awards under the state disaster new housing grant program.
- Modifying emergency funds transfer authority in times of disaster to ensure the state government can be quick with its response. It would require a state of disaster emergency proclamation to specify if disaster recovery housing assistance is available to homeowners, renters or both.
- Extending tax exclusions to disaster assistance for housing developers who received awards under the State Disaster Housing Grant Program to incentivize building new homes quickly in natural disaster-stricken areas.
- Setting up a new Safeguarding Tomorrow Revolving Loan Fund, which provides low or no interest loans to local governments in Iowa to mitigate the risk from natural hazards.
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