No Flood Bill Before Memorial Day Weekend

NU Online News Service, May 20, 11:55 a.m. EDT

WASHINGTON—The House appears unlikely to act on legislation that would reauthorize the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) for five years before it leaves for the Memorial Day holiday.

Indications that the House will be unable to act this month surfaced just as industry trade groups sent a letter to members of the Senate Banking Committee urging prompt action on such legislation in that chamber.

The House Financial Services Committee last Friday reported out legislation (H.R. 1309, the Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2011) reauthorizing the program until Sept. 30, 2016.

It was pushed through the panel in hopes that the full House could act before the end of this month and push the issue onto the Senate calendar. But industry officials said it is unlikely that the House will act next week, although the industry will lobby for prompt action when it returns the following week.

The earliest the House floor vote is likely to occur is early- to mid-June, according to a lobbyist for an industry trade group.

The industry letter to Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., chairman, and Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., ranking minority member of the Senate Banking Committee, was aimed at "underscoring the importance" of a long-term reauthorization of the NFIP and urged that the panel "move expeditiously" to consider such legislation.

The letter was signed by the American Insurance Association; the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies; the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America; the Financial Services Roundtable; and the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America.

The letter says, "The hundreds of recent significant flooding events along the Mississippi River and other portions of the Midwest have already caused significant damage this year; and the hurricane season will start June 1."

Failure to reauthorize the NFIP, the letter continues, "would further stress already struggling real estate markets, potentially cost the government billions of dollars in uncompensated relief efforts, and put millions of consumers at risk."

It says the NFIP is "critically important to Americans and the U.S. economy," and that prompt congressional action now to reauthorize this program is needed to "avoid the costly consequences that would result from failure to act."

The current extension of the program runs out Sept. 30.

Of most concern to the insurance industry is that the NFIP has been extended 10 times on a short-term basis since the original reauthorization ran out in 2008. The program lapsed for a total of 53 days last year because Congress delayed passage of a short-term extension.