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- 25 applied, including zoning and other land use regulation, flood forecasting, federal flood insurance, relocation of property, and alternative water storage techniques. Major steps were taken to redefine federal policy. Section 206 of the Flood Control Act of 1960 authorized the Corps to provide technical services and planning assistance to communities for wise use of the floodplain and for ameliorating the flood hazard. The Corps began producing maps and floodplain information reports describing a community's flood hazard from a broader perspective. The President's water policy statement of 1962 estab- lished policies and procedures for comprehensive river basin plans. The \Vater Resources Planning Act of 1965 created the U.S. \'Vater Resources Council and authorized federal-state river basin commissions for comprehensive basin planning. House Document 465, the report of a Bureau of the Budget Task Force on Federal Flood Control Policy, advocated a broader perspective on flood control within the context of floodplain development and use. Executive Order 11296, Flood Hazard Evaluation, directed all federal agencies to evaluate the flood hazard before undertaking federally financed or supported actions and to playa lead role in preventing uneconomic use and development of flood- plains. Fifteen states, most notably \Visconsin and Minnesota, adopted flood- plain management programs, some of them providing for strict regulation. Local governments also began trying to deal with the hazard in a more com- prehensive way, usually with assistance from a state or federal agency such as the Tennessee Valley Authority. HISTORY OF A UNIFIED NATIONAL PROGRAM FOR FLOODPLAIN MANAGEMENT House Document 465, A Umjied National Programfar A1anaging Flnod Loms, was submitted to Congress by President Lyndon Johnson in August 1966. It had been prepared by the Task Force on Flood Control Policy at the administration's request in an attempc to slow the mounting national toll of flood losses, unchecked by over $7 billion in national investments in flood control projects since 1936. House Document 465 recognized the need for a unified approach and for new planning measures, and made 16 recommendations for federal agency action co begin implementation of a program- including new legislation, specific studies, and new programs for collecting and disseminating flood-related information. A Unified National Program, 1976 In response to a 1968 Bureau of the Budget request for a report pursuant to a directive in Section 1302(c) of the National flood Insurance Act, and to a 1975 U.S. General Accounting Office report criticizing House Document 465 and Execu- tive Order 11296, the U.S. Water Resources Council submitted to the President the Unified Natimwl Programftr Fwod- pLainlv[anagn7lmt in 1976. This revision, whose title change reflected a significant recognition that more than flood losses were invoh"ed, established a more detailed frame"lIork for the program, described the greatly changed context in which it would be implemented (numerous changes in flood-related federal programs had taken place), and added manage- ment strategies and tools for federal, state, and local decisionmakers to use. The report focused on the need for improved coordination, which was cited as the "\veakest component of current management efforts." 1979 Revisions to a Unified l\larional Program Although the 1976 Unified National Program made a significant step forward in floodplain management, its very effectiveness made it quickly dated. Several executive level actions-President Carter's floodplain management policy articulated in 1977, Executive Orders 11988 and 11990, and the President's 1978 water policy initiatives-were soon taken, making the 1976 version obsolete. The Federal Interagency Floodplain Management Task Force updated and refined the Unified National Program in a report submitted by the \'Vater Resources Council to the President in 1979. This revision incorporated federal concern with the "natural and beneficial values" of floodplains, responded to the President's policy directives, expanded the strategies (adding two: restoration of natural values and preservation of natural values), tools, and conceptual framework accordingly, and emphasized the insufficient awareness of alterna- tive strategies due to "lack of adequate technical and procedural information to guide floodplain decision-makers." 1986 Revisions to a Unified National Program In 1982, the Office of Management and the Budget assigned responsibility for the Unified Nacional Program to the Federal Emergency rvlanagement Agency, which assumed chair of the Interagency Task Force. The Task Force sub- mitted an updated Unified National Program in 1986, noting that the 1979 report had become "dated by the relative success and changes in federal programs and by the strengthening of floodplain management capability at the state and local levels.' ' These changes included the use of federal interagency hazard mitigation teams, passage of the 1982 Coastal Barrier Resources Act restricting federal expenditures that might encourage development of coastal barriers along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, and completion of two major National Science Foundation studies on flood haz- ard mitigation. The report included more explicit recommendations for the federal role in supporting state and local initiatives.