hereby conferred upon United States district courts to hear and determine such actions without regard to the amount of controversy. FISCAL INTERMEDIARIES AND SERVICING AGENTS SEC. 1242. (a) In order to provide for maximum efficiency in the administration of the reinsurance and direct insurance programs under this title, and in order to facilitate the expeditious payment of any funds under such program, the Director may enter into contracts with any insurer, pool, or other person, for the purpose of providing for the performance of any or all of the following functions: (1) estimating or determining any amounts of payments for reinsurance or direct insurance claims; (2) receiving and disbursing and accounting for funds in making payments for reinsurance or direct insurance claims; (3) auditing the records of any insurer, pool, or other person to the extent necessary to assure that proper payments are made; (4) establishing the basis of liability of reinsurance or direct insurance payments, including the total amount of proved and approved claims which may be payable to any insurer or property owner, and the total amount of premiums earned by any insurer in the respective States for reinsured or directly insured lines of property insurance; and (5) otherwise assisting in any manner provided in the contract to further the purposes of this title. (b)(1) Any such contract may require the insurer, pool, or other person, or any of its officers or employees certifying payments or disbursing funds pursuant to the contract, or otherwise participating in carrying out the contract, to give surety bonds to the United States in such amounts as the Director may deem appropriate. (2) In the absence of gross negligence or intent to defraud the United States (A) no individual designated pursuant to a contract under this section to certify payments shall be liable with respect to any payment certified by him under this section; and (B) no officer of the United States disbursing funds shall be liable with respect to any otherwise proper payment by him if it was based on a voucher signed by an individual designated pursuant to a contract under this section to certify payments. NATIONAL INSURANCE DEVELOPMENT FUND SEC. 1243. (a) To carry out the programs authorized under this title, the Director is authorized to establish a National Insurance Development Fund (hereinafter called the "fund") which shall be available, without fiscal year limitations (1) to make such payments as may, from time to time, be requried under reinsurance and direct insurance contracts under this title; (2) to pay such administrative expenses as may be necessary or appropriate to carry out the purposes of this title; and (3) to repay to the Secretary of the Treasury such sums, including interest thereon, as may be borrowed from him for purposes of such programs under section 520(b). (b) The fund shall be credited with (1) reinsurance and direct insurance premiums, fees, and other charges which may be paid or collected in connection with reinsurance and direct insurance provided under parts B and C; (2) interest which may be earned on investments of the fund; (3) such amounts as may be advanced to the fund from appropriations in order to maintain the fund in an operative condition adequate to meet its liabilities; (4) such amounts which are hereby authorized to be appropriated as may be necessary from time to time to reimburse the fund for losses and expenses (including administrative expenses) incurred in carrying out the program authorized under part C; (5) receipts from any other source which may, from time to time, be credited to the fund; and (6) funds borrowed by the Director under section 520(b) and deposited in the fund. (c) If, after any amounts which may have been advanced to the fund from appropriations have been credited to the appropriation from which advanced (including interest thereon at the rate prescribed under section 520(b)), the Director determines that the moneys of the fund are in excess of current needs, he may request the investment of such amounts as he deems advisable by the Secretary of the Treasury in obligations issued or guaranteed by the United States. (d) An annual business-type budget for the fund shall be prepared, transmitted to the Congress, considered, and enacted in the manner prescribed by law (sections 102, 103, and 104 of the Government Corporation Control Act (31 U.S.C. 847-849))1 for wholly owned Government corporations. RECORDS, ANNUAL STATEMENT, AND AUDITS SEC. 1244. (a) Any insurer, pool, or property owner acquiring reinsurance or direct insurance under this title shall furnish the Director with such summaries and analyses of information in its records as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this title, in such form as the Director, in cooperation with the State insurance authority, shall, by rules and regulations prescribe. The Director shall make use of State insurance authority examination reports and facilities to the maximum extent feasible. (b) Any insurer or pool acquiring reinsurance under this title shall file with the Director a true and correct copy of any annual statement, or amendment thereof, filed with the State insurance authority of its domiciliary State, at the time it files such statement or amendment with such State insurance authority. 1 Sections 102, 103, and 104 of the Government Corporation Control Act have been codified as sections 9103 and 9104 of title 31, United States Code. 36-210 0-84-33 (c) Any insurer or other person executing any contract, agreement, or other appropriate arrangement with the Director under section 1222 or section 1242 shall keep reasonable records which fully disclose the total costs of the programs undertaken or the services being rendered, and such other records as will facilitate an effective audit of liability for reinsurance or direct insurance payments by the Director. (d) The Director and the Comptroller General of the United States, or any of their duly authorized representatives, shall have access for the purpose of investigation, audit, and examination to any books, documents, papers, and records of any insurer or other person that are pertinent to the costs of any program undertaken for, or services rendered to, the Director. Such audits shall be conducted to the maximum extent feasible in cooperation with the State insurance authorities and through the use of their examining facilities. STUDY OF REINSURANCE AND OTHER PROGRAMS SEC. 1245. (a) The Director is authorized and directed to conduct a study of reinsurance and other means to help assure (1) an adequate market for burglary and theft and other property insurance in urban areas; and (2) adequate availability of surety bonds for construction contractors in urban areas. (b) The Director shall submit the results of this study, together with appropriate recommendations, to the President and Congress no later than June 30, 1970. OTHER STUDIES SEC. 1246. (a) The Director is authorized to undertake such studies as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this title including, but not limited to inquiries concerning (1) the operation of plans under part A; (2) the extent to which essential property insurance is unavailable in urban areas; (3) the market for private reinsurance; and (4) loss prevention methods and procedures, insurance marketing methods, and underwriting techniques. (b) To such extent and under such circumstances as may be practicable and feasible, the Director shall conduct any study authorized under this section in cooperation with State insurance authorities and the private insurance industry. GENERAL POWERS SEC. 1247. In the performance of, and with respect to, the functions, powers, and duties vested in him by this title, the Director shall (in addition to any authority otherwise vested in him) have the functions, powers, and duties (including the authority to issue rules and regulations) of the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development set forth in section 402, except subsections (c)(2), (d), and (f), of the Housing Act of 1950. Any rules or regulations of the Director shall only be issued after full consultation with the Board and after notice and hearing, if granted, as required by subchapter II of chapter 5, and chapter 7, of title 5, United States Code. SERVICES AND FACILITIES OF OTHER AGENCIES-UTILIZATION OF SEC. 1248. The Director may, with the consent of the agency concerned, accept and utilize, on a reimbursable basis, the officers, employees, services, facilities, and information of any agency of the Federal Government, except that any such agency having custody of any data relating to any of the matters within the jurisdiction of the Director shall, to the extent permitted by law, upon request of the Director, make such data available to the Director. ADVANCE PAYMENTS SEC. 1249. Any payments which are made under the authority of this title may be made, after necessary adjustments on account of previously made underpayments or overpayments in advance or by way of reimbursement. Payments may be made in such installments and on such conditions as the Director may determine. TAXATION SEC. 1250. (a) The National Insurance Development Fund, including its reserves surplus, and income, shall be exempt from all taxation now or hereafter imposed by the United States, or by any State, or any subdivision thereof, except that any real property acquired by the Director as a result of reinsurance shall be subject to taxation by any State or political subdivision thereof, to the same extent, according to its value, as other real property is taxed. (b) Any measures undertaken by any State to meet or to fund its obligations under section 1223(a)(1) shall not be the subject of any retaliatory or fiscal imposition by any other State. APPROPRIATIONS SEC. 1251. There are hereby authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out this title. FLOOD INSURANCE EXCERPTS FROM THE FLOOD DISASTER PROTECTION ACT OF 1973 [Public Law 93-234; 87 Stat. 975; 42 U.S.C. 4002, 4012a, 4105] That this Act may be cited as the "Flood Disaster Protection Act of 1973". FINDINGS AND DECLARATION OF PURPOSE SEC. 2. (a) The Congress finds that (1) annual losses throughout the Nation from floods and mudslides are increasing at an alarming rate, largely as a result of the accelerating development of, and concentration of population in, areas of flood and mudslides hazards; (2) the availability of Federal loans, grants, guaranties, insurance, and other forms of financial assistance are often determining factors in the utilization of land and the location and construction of public and of private industrial, commercial, and residential facilities; (3) property acquired or contructed with grants or other Federal assistance may be exposed to risk of loss through floods, thus frustrating the purpose for which such assistance was extended; (4) Federal instrumentalities insure or otherwise provide financial protection to banking and credit institutions whose assets include a substantial number of mortgage loans and other indebtedness secured by property exposed to loss and damage from floods and mudslides: (5) the Nation cannot afford the tragic losses of life caused annually by flood occurences, nor the increasing losses of property suffered by flood victims, most of whom are still inadequately compensated despite the provision of costly disaster relief benefits; and (6) it is in the public interest for persons already living in floodprone areas to have both an opportunity to purchase flood insurance and access to more adequate limits of coverage, so that they will be indemnified for their losses in the event of future flood disasters. (b) The purpose of this Act, therefore, is to (1) substantially increase the limits of coverage authorized under the national flood insurance program; (2) provide for the expeditious identification of, and the dissemination of information concerning, flood-prone areas; (3) require States or local communities, as a condition of future Federal financial assistance, to participate in the flood insurance program and to adopt adequate flood plain ordinances with effective enforcement provisions consistent with Federal standards to reduce or avoid future flood losses; and (4) require the purchase of flood insurance by property owners who are being assisted by Federal programs or by federally supervised, regulated, or insured agencies or institutions in the acquisition or improvement of land or facilities located |