American Flood Coalition Helps Advance Mitigation Programs

8/13/26 – The American Flood Coalition (AFC) is a nationwide advocate for flood-risk reduction at the local, state and federal levels. August 2026 is a landmark month for federal disaster recovery, according to the group.

CDBG-DR Simplification

On July 10, Congress passed a bipartisan proposal to authorize the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program for three years.

AFC’s advocacy arm, American Flood Coalition Action (AFCA), has long called on Congress to authorize CDBG-DR. It provides flexible funding for states and communities to rebuild housing, repair critical infrastructure, and address other long-term needs as they recover from floods, wildfires, and other disasters.

But until now, HUD had to write new regulations each time Congress funded the program. That added delays and complexity for communities on the long road to recovery.

However, for the first-ever, this authorization will:

Ensure consistent rules for the next three years.
Establish an Office of Disaster Management and Resiliency within HUD.
Require coordination and data sharing between HUD and other federal agencies like FEMA and the Small Business Administration.
Create a long-term disaster recovery fund at the U.S. Treasury.

AFC says it will continue to share updates as this major win for disaster-impacted states and communities is implemented. You can sign up for their newsletter here.

CDBG-DR programs finance many flood-mitigation projects in Harris County. So, we may directly benefit from these changes.

Flooding during Harvey at Kingwood Village Estates where 12 people died near Bens Branch. It is part of the Kingwood Diversion Ditch project which is now in final engineering and still seeking funding.

Farm Bill Advancing in Senate and House with AFC Priorities

In June, the Senate Agriculture Committee released its draft Farm Bill. The draft includes three AFCA policy priorities:

Strengthening the Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) program to fund both post-flood recovery and proactive watershed upgrades that reduce future disaster risk.
Expanding the Regional Conservation Partnership Program’s purpose to include flood prevention.
Tripling mandatory funding for the Watershed and Flood Prevention Operations program, which helps state and local governments protect and restore watersheds.

The House passed its version of the legislation in April, which incorporates three additional AFCA priorities:

Allowing EWP project sponsors to begin pre-approved emergency watershed protection measures after a disaster and count costs as part of their cost share without having to wait for U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) approval, speeding up recoveries.
Directing USDA to conduct a national agricultural flood vulnerability assessment.
Increasing the federal cost share for the Watershed Rehabilitation program.

While the House and Senate still need to reconcile their respective Farm Bills, these steps would help farmers and farmland communities advance flood-smart agriculture and bolster their resilience to floods and extreme weather.

Embracing flood-smart agriculture helps reduce flood risk throughout a watershed. When farmers adopt practices that slow runoff, increase soil infiltration, and store water, they protect their own fields while serving as critical flood infrastructure for entire watersheds.

For instance, AFC research in Iowa found that wider use of multi-cropping upstream in the Cedar River Watershed could reduce flooding by up to 30%. Such nature-based solutions benefit all residents of a watershed.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 8/13/2026

3271 Days since Hurricane Harvey