WASHINGTON—Another short-term extension of the National Flood Insurance Program appears likely as Congress won't be able to act on a long-term bill before the current authorization expires May 31.

Sen. John Tester, D-Mont., made this observation in his opening statement at a hearing he convened today on flood-insurance issues.

Tester is chairman of the Subcommittee on Economic Policy of the Senate Banking Committee.

“And while we cannot take our focus away from passing a long-term reauthorization and reform bill, it is also clear that we will need a short-term extension in order to continue our work in getting a long-term reauthorization and reform bill across the finish line,” Tester said at the hearing.

Authorization of the current program originally expired in 2008, and it has existed on 15 temporary extensions since then, lapsing four times for a total of 53 days.

Industry officials envision Congress acting to sustain the program this month in one of two ways.

One would be a resolution incorporating the latest suggestion by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to extend the existing program for two years.

The other is to pass S. 2344, legislation sponsored by Sen. David Vitter, R-La., and introduced in the Senate last year which extends the existing program until Dec. 31.

That would give Congress time to act on the long-term bills after the election.

Tester touched on this in his opening statement:

“Vitter and I have been working together on this issue for quite some time now,” he said.

“And he's been a great partner and dogged in his efforts to ensure that the NFIP program doesn't continue to suffer the same lapses that we saw in 2010,” Tester said.

“I appreciate his sponsorship of S. 2344—a short-term extension of the program through the end of the year which I've joined as a cosponsor to ensure that we don't fall into a lapse on June 1 and that we can continue our work on a long-term reauthorization bill,” he said.

“The bottom line is that we need a long-term reauthorization and reform bill and we need it now,” Tester said. “The House and Senate have never produced long-term reauthorization bills as closely aligned as the two we have before us.”

Industry officials at the hearing pushed for a long-term reauthorization.

David A. Sampson, president and CEO of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, testified at the hearing that “we are here today to support your efforts to pass bipartisan legislation in the Senate that includes a long-term reauthorization and meaningful reforms.”

Sampson said the more than 5.6 million American homeowners, renters, and businesses that are are NFIP policyholders are “depending on you to act quickly to avoid another lapse in flood-insurance coverage.”

Jon Jensen, an independent agent from South Carolina and chairman of the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America's Government Affairs Committee, told the panel that the marketplace and consumers “are increasingly frustrated with the nature of the short-term extensions granted to the program and that they deserve the stability granted by a long-term extension.”

Jensen also said that agents and brokers “strongly support” S. 1940, the “Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act of 2011,” sponsored by Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. The bill, which would reform the program and extend it until Sept. 30, 2016, was reported out by the Senate Banking Committee unanimously last September.

Special Reports /

At Hearing, Senator Says Short-Term NFIP Reauthorization Likely

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