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<br />approach to floodplain management, which had appeared to be receiving bipartisan support in
<br />Congress, was portrayed in the press as a "greening of the floodplains," and as an environmental
<br />protection and restoration initiative, Further, both its premises and recommendations ran counter to
<br />the short-sighted economics-based decisionmaking tools in wide use then and today, Because of the
<br />spin put on the report by the media, support was lost, and rapid and widespread endorsement of the
<br />report of the Galloway task force was doomed,
<br />
<br />This new political "opposition" caused many of the far-reaching initiatives of the Clinton
<br />Administration to be withdrawn by the White House for continued study and development, and
<br />follow-up since then has been relatively sporadic. An added misfortune was that the well-intentioned
<br />moves of the Administration early in the Midwest recovery in essence usurped the toehold on
<br />advancing floodplain management that the Interagency Task Force on Floodplain Management had
<br />maintained up to the 1993 floods, To further compound this problem, there simultaneously was a
<br />dramatic turnover in agency personnel serving on the Task Force and in both appointed and career
<br />staff within the Office of Management and Budget and the Council on Environmental Quality, This
<br />resulted in the serious diminution of institutional knowledge and experience in floodplain policy at
<br />the federal level, and thereby created a vacuum in federal oversight, coordination, and leadership,
<br />
<br />The years since the Midwest flood have seen numerous other major flood disasters as well as
<br />devastating hurricanes, and Congress has broadened to some extent its perspective on flood risk and
<br />losses. Too often, however, it still views flood damage reduction from a "projects" perspective-
<br />federal dollars spent locally and not nearly enough to promote wise floodplain and natural resource
<br />management. The results of this near-sighted approach are often more-not less-at-risk floodplain
<br />development, rising disaster costs, and deterioration of river and stream ecosystems that then also
<br />require increased expenditures for treatment and restoration,
<br />
<br />Although floodplain management works best when it is implemented at the local level, states and
<br />localities cannot reduce flood losses in the absence of federal leadership and guidance. If we, as a
<br />nation, are to diminish the adverse consequences of floodplain development, the federal govemment
<br />must continue to broaden its approach, Federal agencies must act as facilitators--rather than problem
<br />solvers-in the process of developing solutions to flood problems, The ultimate federal role should
<br />be that of developing and implementing programs and policies that encourage state and local
<br />govemments to take actions that both reduce future federal disaster payments and support the
<br />nation's environmental and economic goals, The appropriate role of the state govemment is to
<br />provide, as necessary, policy development, resources, technical assistance to communities,
<br />coordination, and prioritization of floodplain management issues within that state,
<br />
<br />The solution to escalating flood damage and loss of floodplain resources is a coordinated national
<br />policy, with a transfer of assumed responsibility from the federal government to the local and state
<br />levels. Today some federal programs are being modified in a manner that ignores the state role, or
<br />are being set up to provide direct services to local governments with little thought of establishing
<br />incentives to build capability or encourage responsibility. As pointed out in this document, state-level
<br />capability is diminishing, and local capability is inconsistent and limited, Losses from floods cannot
<br />be reduced if these trends are left unchecked, Although many advances have been made, the
<br />Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM) is concerned that if we do not renew our efforts
<br />to institutionalize coordination among all levels of government and to solidify local capability, then
<br />the hard-won advances in the field of floodplain management will be lost rapidly. In that event, the
<br />cost to the nation will be extreme,
<br />
<br />Association of State Floodplain Managers
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<br />National Flood Programs in Review 2000
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