NU Online News Service, July 13, 2:20 p.m. EST

Insurance industry trade groups today lauded the decision of the House to pass legislation reauthorizing the National Flood Insurance Program for five years—and urged the Senate to act promptly on the measure.

The program expires September 30.

"The House has done its part to address this issue," says Jimi Grande, senior vice president of federal and state affairs for the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC). "The ball is now in the Senate's court and the clock is ticking."

Mike Becker, director of federal affairs for the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents (NAPIA) says, "It will remain a priority for PIA to maintain our effort in the Senate to ensure they continue their work."

He said it is "critical the Senate leave adequate time to work out any differences with [H.R. 1309] well before the NFIP's expiration in September."

Becker also cited the decision of the House to overwhelmingly defeat an amendment by Rep. Candace Miller, R-Mich., which would have ended the program as of the end of 2011.

"The critical importance of the NFIP was underscored by Congress in their overwhelming defeat" of the Miller amendment, Becker adds. "The program protects more than five million Americans and terminating it with no viable alternative would have been unwise public policy."

Leigh Ann Pusey, president and chief executive officer of the American Insurance Association (AIA), says, "The certainty and stability of this program is an essential component of protecting the homes and businesses that may incur losses as a result of flooding."

She says the AIA hopes the Senate will quickly enact similar reforms.

The Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America (IIABA) especially noted the rejecting by the House of an amendment proposed by Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., that would have stripped out a provision adding business interruption and additional living expense coverage to the program if certain conditions were met.

"These coverages are critically important to consumers and small businesses and the IIABA strongly supports their inclusion in the Flood Insurance Reform Act," says Charles Symington, IIABA senior vice president of government affairs.

The Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI) applauded a decision to add an amendment to require the Federal Emergency Management Agency to find write-your-own companies to take over 832,000 flood policies formerly underwritten by State Farm and its 17,000 agents.

It requires FEMA to reduce the number of flood insurance policies that are directly managed by the agency to not more than 10 percent of the total number of flood insurance policies in force.

It would also require FEMA to refuse to accept future transfers of policies to the NFIP Direct program.

"The amendment is an important measure to protect NFIP policyholders and captive insurance agents while preventing an exponential growth of the federal government's management of flood insurance," says Ben McKay, PCI senior vice president of federal government relations.

But Phil Supple, a spokesman for State Farm, whose agents would be most affected by the amendment, says, "This amendment is not about getting the federal government out of the flood insurance business. It is one group of insurance companies trying to poach business from a separate group of agents."

"Not only does the amendment keep the federal government in the flood insurance business, but it also could cost up to $250 million in new federal spending on behalf of these other companies, according to FEMA," Supple adds.

Special Reports /

Insurance Industry Urges Senate to Follow House on NFIP Reauthorization

Related Stories

Recommended For You