NU Online News Service, Oct. 18, 2:47 p.m. EDT

WASHINGTON—Two Gulf-Coast senators are seeking to remove a Senate flood-insurance legislation provision requiring flood coverage in areas already protected by levees, dams or other flood-control structures.

Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., and Mark Pryor, D-Ark., announced late Monday that they are seeking to have Sec. 107 of the National Flood Insurance Program Reauthorization Bill deleted from the proposal.

The provision was included in a bill that was reported out of the Senate Banking Committee Sept. 8.

Cochran and Pryor are raising the issue fully aware that the Senate is working under the pressure of another temporary extension of the NFIP, now slated to sunset Nov. 18.

The Senate must pass a bill, then reconcile its version with a somewhat different House bill, H.R. 1309, the Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2011 before that date.

Matt Gannon, assistant vice president of federal affairs for the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, voices sympathy for the concerns of Cochran and Pryor, but adds that the Senate bill's Technical Mapping Advisory Council was established to address this very type of issue.

"These communities could be deemed exempt by the map council or have the lowest premiums required by the NFIP due to their robust mitigation efforts," Gannon says.

Gannon also says "it is doubtful" that flood-insurance premiums would reach a level to slow economic development behind strong, well maintained levees, dams or other flood-control structures.

But Cochran and Pryor say they are asking their colleagues to join them in signing a bipartisan letter to the banking panel asking for reconsideration of Sec. 107.

This provision would expand required insurance coverage to "areas of residual risk" that are located behind levees, near dams or other flood-control structures.

"The NFIP must be reformed, and I believe the Senate Banking Committee has done yeoman's work on crafting bipartisan reform legislation," Cochran says.

But he says Sec. 107 creates new flood insurance coverage mandates on families and businesses that are already protected by strong levees and dams.

"The blanket approach taken in the current bill should be changed in order to ensure fair treatment for those protected properties," Cochran says.

Special Reports /

Senators: Areas Protected By Levees, Dams Should Not Need Flood Coverage

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