NFIP 3-Month Extension Approved

By Steven Brostoff, Washington Editor

NU Online News Service, Nov. 26, 11:20 a.m.EST, Washingon?Congress has approved athree-month extension of the National Flood Insurance Program whileit continues to wrangle over the issue of how to handle repetitiveloss properties.[@@]

The House and the Senate approved S. 1768, which continues theNFIP until March 31, 2004. This means that the program will notlapse, as happened at the end of 2002.

The House and the Senate, however, were unable to agree on alonger term extension because of a dispute over reforms approved bythe House on repetitive loss properties.

The House passed a bill, H.R. 253, which would allow the FederalEmergency Management Administration to target repetitive lossproperties and pay up to 90 percent of mitigation costs.

However, the Senate did not consider the issue of repetitiveloss properties during its deliberations over the flood insuranceprogram.