NU Online News Service, June 10, 2:54 p.m. EDT

WASHINGTON—Federal flood-management officials are considering whether to base National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) premiums on community-mitigation efforts—a departure from current practice.

Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which manages the NFIP, disclosed in testimony Thursday before the Senate Banking Committee that the agency is considering incentivizing mitigation efforts as a means of cutting the cost of the NFIP.

Fugate testified that the community-based risk-assessment system is being considered because it was suggested by program stakeholders during the current effort by the agency to determine how the program should be structured in the future.

Under the proposal, risk assessments would be performed on individual buildings and the insurance premium payment would be made by the community.

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As part of this option, the federal government would continue to back flood-insurance contracts in exchange for the adoption and enforcement of minimum floodplain-management standards and would provide an assessment and calculation of flood risk, Fugate said.

"The sum in dollars of the risk assessment for all buildings in the community would constitute the required premium," he said. "Incentives could be structured to encourage communities to implement flood-mitigation measures in order to reduce their overall premium assessment."

An industry lobbyist sums up the hearing by saying senators indicated "strong support for a long-term reauthorization," but see the NFIP as in need of "significant reform," especially in getting the program in better fiscal condition.

"Included in those reforms is a move toward more accurate risk-based pricing," the lobbyist says.

Nearly every senator attending the hearing asked questions about mapping and levee issues in their states.

Senators also voiced concern about the potential impact that levee decertification and changes to the flood maps are having or will have on homeowners who may be required to purchase flood insurance.

And some senators voiced a need to encourage further involvement of the private-insurance market.

But the insurance lobbyist agrees that the members showed through their questions that while the NFIP is of vital interest to people in many states, higher priority issues make it unlikely that the Senate will be able to complete work on legislation providing a long-term reauthorization of the program before the current extension of the existing program expires Sept. 30.

Industry trade groups are urging prompt action in both the House and Senate on the legislation.

Ben McKay, senior vice president of federal government relations for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, says: "The flood program is currently saddled with approximately $18 billion of debt. We are pleased that the House flood-insurance reform bill includes provisions to move the NFIP toward more adequate rates that will stabilize the program and reduce taxpayers' exposure to costly relief efforts."

Jimi Grande, senior vice president of federal and political affairs for the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC), adds, "The need for the NFIP has rarely been more clear than it is now, and the responsibility for ensuring the NFIP will be there for homeowners across the country rests with Congress."

Matt Gannon, NAMIC assistant vice president for federal affairs, says the problems "facing NFIP aren't new. They've been the same since 2005. Since then, the NFIP has been a burden on the taxpayers, and it will continue to be one unless Congress acts."

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