The House will not vote until next week on legislation thateffectively repeals a 2012 law mandating phase-in of actuarialrates for the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., the primarysponsor of the House bill, told members of the House Republicancaucus this morning that a vote he wanted Thursday on hislegislation will not be held because he lacked the votes to push itthrough under accelerated rules that requires a two-third vote inthe House.

The legislation, H.R. 3370, was introduced by the HouseRepublican leadership late Friday night in order to grease thewheels for prompt House action. It would essentially revamp theentire premium-hike program imposed under the 2012 Biggert-WatersAct, as opposed to an earlier Senate bill, S. 1926 that wouldstrictly delay the NFIP rate hikes.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., the ranking Democratic negotiator,though, immediately objected to the bill, and Cantor acknowledgedtoday that he will need to work closely with Waters in order toensure prompt action next week on the legislation.

Cantor wants accelerated action on the bill for politicalreasons. He is pushing to get it signed by President Obama beforeMarch 11 in order to help David Jolly win a highly-contested openseat in the Clearwater/Pinellas County, Fla., area, according toboth Democratic and Republican lobbyists and congressionalstaffers.

But while there are political motivations and statements, theflood legislation has divided the House along regional, rather thanparty lines.

Republicans in such Gulf Coast and coastal states as Louisiana,Mississippi, Georgia and South Carolina are demanding action, andRepublicans in Florida forced action on the bill from Cantor bythreatening to support S. 1926, the Senate's plan to delay the NFIPrate hikes.

But House congressional staffers estimate that as many as 80House Republicans may oppose the legislation, including Rep. RandyNeugebauer, R-Texas, who heads the House Financial ServicesCommittee subcommittee that has oversight over the legislation.

Neugebauer said in a statement, “There's been a lot of confusionand concern about rate increases since Biggert-Waters passed, and Iunderstand how difficult that is for homeowners…But the legislationbeing considered this week is a virtual repeal of Biggert-Waters,and I can't support that.

“That's not fair to taxpayers who are subsidizing these rates,and it's not fair to homeowners, who need a healthy flood-insuranceprogram.”

Some conservative groups, such as the Club for Growth and theHeritage Foundation, have also published statements blasting thenew bill.

“Heritage Action opposes the Homeowner Flood InsuranceAffordability Act and will include it as a vote on our legislativescorecard,” the group said in a statement issued Tuesday.

That means Cantor will require a large number of Democraticvotes to push the bill through.

But drafters of the legislation are having difficulty reachingagreement with Democrats on a key provision that replaces thephase-in of actuarial rates on all properties imposed under the2012 law. The proposed law replaces that with language imposing a“15-percent annual average” rate increase.

Waters and Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., say the 15-percent annualaverage rate increase would be a national average and not set forindividual properties. Landrieu says this means “rates couldactually increase higher than under Biggert-Waters.”