findings and declaration of purpose

findings and declaration of purpose Sec. 1102. [12 U.S.C. 1749bbb note] (a) The Congress finds that (1) the vitality of many American cities is being threatened by the deterioration of their inner city areas; responsible owners of well-maintained residential, business, and other properties in many of these areas are unable to obtain adequate property insurance coverage against fire, crime, and other perils; the lack of such insurance coverage accelerates the deterioration of these areas by discouraging private investment and restricting the availability of credit to repair and improve property therein; and this deterioration poses a serious threat to the national economy; (2) recent riots and other civil commotion in many American cities have brought about abnormally high losses to the private property insurance industry for which adequate reinsurance cannot be obtained at reasonable cost, and the risk of such losses will make most lines of property insurance even more difficult to obtain; (3) the capacity of the private property insurance industry to provide adequate insurance is threatened, and the continuity of such property insurance protection is essential to the extension of credit in these areas; and (4) the national interest demands urgent action by the Congress to assure that essential lines of property insurance, including lines providing protection against riot and civil commotion damage will be available to property owners at reasonable cost. (b) The purposes of this title are, therefore, to (1) encourage and assist the various State insurance authorities and the property insurance industry to develop and carry out statewide programs which will make necessary property insurance coverage against the fire, crime, and other perils more readily available for residential, business, and other properties meeting reasonable underwriting standards; (2) provide a Federal program of reinsurance against abnormally high property insurance losses resulting from riots and other civil commotion, placing appropriate financial responsibility upon the States to share in such losses; and (3) provide direct insurance through the facilities of the Federal Government in the case of properties for which statewide programs and the Federal reinsurance program either do not make crime insurance available or offer such insurance to property owners only at prohibitive cost.