Iowa House Bill HF982

Iowa 2025-2026 Regular Session

• Filed/Introduced: 4/17/25
• Introduced: 4/1/25
• Refer: 4/1/25

Caption

A bill for an act relating to the natural hazard mitigation financing program, the disaster recovery housing assistance program, the disaster recovery new housing program, post-loss assignment of benefits, the licensing and regulation of adjusters, appraisers, and umpires, and the Iowa economic emergency fund, and providing penalties, making appropriations, and including effective date and retroactive applicability provisions.(Formerly HF 957, HSB 246; See HF 1012.)

Summary

HF 982 is a broad disaster-response and insurance-regulation bill. It creates a new natural hazard mitigation financing program administered by the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and the Iowa Finance Authority, including a revolving loan fund, authority to issue bonds and notes, and a process for federal capitalization grants under the federal STORM Act. The program is intended to finance projects that reduce damage from natural hazards such as floods, severe storms, wildfires, drought, earthquakes, shoreline erosion, and storm surge, including levees, zoning changes, and building-code enforcement. The bill also revises Iowa’s disaster recovery housing assistance program. It expands the program to provide grants, loans, and forgivable loans to eligible homeowners and renters after a governor’s disaster emergency proclamation, removes the requirement that applicants register for the disaster case advocacy program to be considered, and limits administrative costs to 5 percent of certain deposited funds. It further creates a retroactive tax subtraction for qualifying state disaster recovery new housing grants issued in late 2024, effective immediately and applied retroactively to tax years beginning January 1, 2024. A major portion of the bill regulates post-loss assignments of insurance benefits and the conduct of residential contractors after catastrophic disasters. It defines post-loss assignments, restricts contractor practices, requires detailed disclosures and cancellation rights, bars certain fees and inducements, requires mortgagee protections, and makes violations an unfair insurance practice. The bill also imposes a 72-hour post-disaster cooling-off period before contractors may enter into such agreements, with possible extension by the insurance commissioner after a public hearing. HF 982 substantially rewrites Iowa law governing public adjusters, independent adjusters, staff adjusters, appraisers, and umpires. It creates new licensing systems for appraisers and umpires, requires examinations, continuing education, surety bonds or other financial responsibility, detailed contracts and disclosures, public license lists, recordkeeping, conflict-of-interest rules, disciplinary procedures, civil penalties, and felony penalties for unlicensed activity or serious misconduct. It also requires property insurance policies issued or renewed in Iowa on or after January 1, 2026, to include an appraisal clause that matches the new statutory framework. The bill also changes the Iowa economic emergency fund so that, beginning in FY 2026, up to 10 percent of the fund’s maximum balance from the prior year is appropriated annually for disaster response, recovery, or aid after a gubernatorial disaster proclamation, with executive council approval. It includes a one-time FY 2024-2025 appropriation of $11.6 million to the disaster recovery housing assistance fund and $2 million to nuisance property remediation, and it adds related authority for the governor and Department of Management to direct those funds. The bill was reported unanimously by the House Appropriations Committee, but the overall measure was later withdrawn, suggesting broad committee support but no final enactment.

Impact

HF 982 would have created new chapters and amended multiple existing Iowa Code provisions affecting emergency management, insurance regulation, tax law, and state finance. It would establish a dedicated natural hazard mitigation loan program and fund, authorize bond financing, expand disaster housing assistance, create a new tax subtraction for certain disaster recovery housing grants, regulate post-loss insurance assignments, and create comprehensive licensing and enforcement regimes for adjusters, appraisers, and umpires. It also would alter the use of the Iowa economic emergency fund by creating an automatic disaster-response appropriation mechanism and making specific appropriations for housing recovery and nuisance property remediation.

Sentiment

The available voting history suggests strong support in committee: the House Appropriations Committee reported the bill 24-0. No committee transcript is available, so there is no recorded debate to indicate detailed support or opposition. However, the bill’s eventual withdrawal indicates that, despite unanimous committee approval, it did not advance to enactment and may have remained controversial or unresolved in later stages.

Contention

The most likely points of contention are the bill’s extensive insurance-market regulation and its limits on contractor and adjuster practices after disasters. Residential contractors are restricted from using post-loss assignments in the immediate aftermath of catastrophic disasters, public adjusters face fee caps and contract restrictions, and appraisers and umpires are subject to new licensing, conduct, and penalty provisions. Another possible area of concern is the fiscal and governance structure: the bill creates dedicated funds outside the general fund, authorizes bonds and notes, and automatically appropriates a portion of the Iowa economic emergency fund for disaster purposes, which could raise questions about legislative control over state finances. The withdrawal of the bill suggests that, even if committee support was unanimous, some combination of policy, fiscal, or stakeholder concerns likely remained unresolved.