NU Online News Service, Feb 5, 10:25 a.m. EST
WASHINGTON–Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, wants another House committee to take jurisdiction over the troubled and controversial National Flood Insurance Program.
A spokesman for the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents (PIA) voiced "skepticism" over Mr. Frank's comments, saying he doesn't see how "switching committee jurisdictions will adequately address the underlying problem, which is that Congress needs to set for itself a reasonable schedule to consider a comprehensive NFIP reform bill that includes a five-year reauthorization."
Mr. Frank made his comments yesterday to a lobby group, saying he will seek another short-term reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program before it expires at the end of this month, and wants to kick oversight of the troubled–but critical–program to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
National Underwriter obtained a summary of what was discussed at the meeting, a breakfast gathering of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee held with its Business Council unit, which consists of Washington-based lobbyists and lawyers.
Currently, the NFIP is operating on its fourth extension since its authorization originally expired Sept. 30, 2009.
Another renewal is being delayed because of disagreements between the House and Senate over whether wind damage coverage should be added to the program, whether the program's current $20 billion deficit should be paid off by the government, and how the program should be reformed and modernized.
But, at the same time, Rep. Frank told representatives of the business community that he is seeking to "engineer" a jurisdictional trade with the Transportation Committee.
He is proposing that committee take responsibility for the flood program, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, whose jurisdiction rests with the Finance Committee, would take responsibility for housing after a natural disaster.
Ted Besesparis, a spokesman for the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents, said in response to Rep. Frank's comments that, from a practical standpoint, another extension of the flood program was "predictable because the previous extensions have been too short to allow for consideration of comprehensive reform."
But, he said, dealing with reauthorization "can't be accomplished by repeatedly kicking the can down the road for just a few weeks at a time, which creates repetitive uncertainty in the real estate markets."
He said comprehensive reform should also address forgiveness of the program's debt, which was incurred due to extraordinary storms such as Hurricane Katrina.
"At first blush, we don't see how involving HUD [Housing and Urban Development] in natural disaster response related to emergency housing would be an improvement because HUD is not charged with responding to disasters, while FEMA is," Mr. Besesparis said. "However, we'd be interested in hearing more about Chairman Frank's rationale," he added.
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.