An amendment to flood insurance legislation passed in the U.S. House earlier this week, reducing costs for some local governments.

The amendment, proposed by Rep. Tim Walz, D-Mankato, allows communities to hire the Army Corps of Engineers to re-certify locally-controlled levees in certain cases — a move that could save some city governments tens of thousands of dollars, according to a Walz press release.

Levees must be re-certified to comply with National Flood Insurance Program regulations.

“Our state and local governments have enough to worry about without unnecessarily shouldering higher costs to certify their levees,” said Walz. “This amendment would give our communities more cost-effective options.”

The amendment doesn’t have an immediate affect on Austin, but could in the future, according to City Engineer Jon Erichson.

“Eventually what Walz is doing would affect Austin, but … at the moment it does not affect us either way,” Erichson said.

He said the city has no need to re-certify levees right now.

This issue was brought to Walz’s attention by local officials when the Mankato-North Mankato levy needed to be re-certified in 2009. The Army Corps likely would have saved the city thousands of dollars. The law at the time prevented them from doing so, which is what the Walz amendment overturns.

The amendment was supported by the National Association of Counties, the National League of Cities and the National Association of Towns and Townships.