NU Online News Service

The official start date of the Atlantic hurricane season was June 1, but no flood policies have been issued or renewed because the National Flood Insurance Program has expired, said two insurance groups, calling for a long-term extension of the program.

The NFIP expired May 31, resulting in the third lapse in the ability to purchase flood insurance coverage this year.

As a result, no NFIP policies can be issued or renewed until Congress reauthorizes the program, and existing policyholders cannot increase their coverage limits during the program's hiatus, which is particularly troubling for those who may be impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill should a storm occur, the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI) said.

"It is time to put politics aside and reauthorize the flood insurance program," said Ben McKay, senior vice president of federal government relations for the PCI. "We are now three weeks into hurricane season and homeowners still cannot purchase flood insurance."

The NFIP hiatus will also prevent real estate closings if a property is in a floodplain where coverage is mandated under federally-backed mortgage requirements, PCI said.

"We need a long-term, sustainable solution to the flood program," McKay said. "But if nothing else, we have to immediately address the coastal homeowners who are preparing for hurricane season now."

The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America last week sent a letter to the leadership of the United States Congress urging it "to immediately pass a reauthorization of the NFIP with retroactivity to June 1, 2010."

The association said it firmly believes that lapses in the program will cause confusion and leave many homeowners and small businesses unprotected during a delicate economic period and at a dangerous time of the year.

The IIABA letter said, "Congress has traditionally extended the program for five year periods in order to provide stability and security for the marketplace. Unfortunately, Congress has recently only extended the program for short periods, from 30 days to six months. These short term extensions have occurred in order to allow Congress the opportunity to make needed reforms in order to bring stability to the program in the future."

The letter continued that while IIABA has strongly supported Senate and House reform efforts, "we are concerned that this push for reform has now been underway for nearly four years, and during this time it has held up any consideration of a long term extension. Consequently, the program has been forced to go from one short term extension to the next.

"To make matters worse," the letter said, "in the last year even these short term extensions have been considered in conjunction with the extension of other programs such as unemployment insurance, COBRA subsidies and Medicare 'doc fixes.'

"While each of these programs may be important in their own right, the undeniable reality is that they have political problems that have hindered their consideration, which in turn has hindered the consideration of the extensions of the NFIP."

PCI's McKay noted, "Even if a homeowner purchases a policy today, they will not have flood protection until after the July 4 holidays. There is a 30 day waiting period from when an NFIP policy is purchased until it goes into effect. Congress is wagering a dangerous gamble."

Special Reports /

Industry Groups Urge Congress To Extend NFIP, Put Politics Aside

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