It will be extremely difficult for Congress “to delay a trainthat is nearing its destination,” an insurance industry executivesays in reaction to the flurry of legislative efforts to forestallflood insurance rate hikes mandated under a 2012 law.

The official says the Federal Emergency Management Agency hasbeen working since February to change computer software to reflectthe rate changes imposed by the Biggert-Waters Act.

“The renewal notices will start going out on July 1, and weexpect this to trigger an exponential increase in the number ofcomplaints to members of Congress,” the official notes.

The official was commenting to PC360 about bills beingintroduced in the Senate that would significantly delay theproposed increases.

One bill, the “Responsible Implementation of Flood InsuranceReform Act,” would delay the reform provisions of the 2012 floodlaw by a minimum of two years.

The bill is sponsored by Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., and DavidVitter, R-La.

And Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., said today, “We are makingimportant progress on the Senate side to fix this problem,” thatis, indefinitely delay rate increases imposed through Sec. 207 ofthe 2012 law.

The industry executive, though, says, “It is incrediblydifficult for ratepayers and agents to deal with the uncertaintycaused by legislators seeking to roll back rate increases alreadyscheduled to go into effect.”

Moreover, the executive says members of Congress who stronglysupport the effort to put the National Flood Insurance Program on asound financial footing “are in a position to block anychanges.”

The insurance industry is divided over whether the rate hikesshould be rolled back.

Mike Becker, vice president of federal affairs for the NationalAssociation of Professional Insurance Agents, says theCochran-Vitter bill addresses key concerns while not eliminatingthe move toward risk-based rates.

Becker says PIA has real concerns that the phase-in of increasedrates mandated by the 2012 law “imposes a considerable burden onhomeowners.”

Becker adds that while PIA supports risk-based rates, “consumeraffordability must be taken into consideration and theVitter-Cochran bill takes steps in this regard.”

However, Jimi Grande, senior vice president of federal andpolitical affairs for the National Association of Mutual InsuranceCompanies, reiterates NAMIC's concerns with amending the 2012 law,which provides five years of certainty for the NFIP.

“There's a reason reforms were passed by Congress and signedinto law by President Obama last year,” Grande says. “Hiddensubsidies in NFIP premiums had made the program a burden on thetaxpayers, while at the same time giving policyholders a falsesense of security with regards to the risk they faced fromflooding.”

He adds, “Seeking to delay the reforms would not address theseproblems, and would instead move the program back toward relying ontaxpayer bailouts to cover its obligations and being unable toaddress the issue of repetitive loss properties.”