Congress Looks to Wrap Up NFIP Extension by Week's End

The House is expected to vote on the legislation today and the Senate on Friday.

However, last-minute hang-ups over how much people who live behind levees will have to pay for insurance are holding up Senate action.

Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark. believes such properties should be excluded from having to purchase coverage.

His concerns come after a compromise was reached on the matter that would allow for lower premiums for people who live in these areas.

Matt Gannon, assistant vice president of federal affairs for the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, said this morning that, "It's always something with the Senate."

He explains, "Here we are at the 1-yard-line, and there are still a few senators who may hold up the whole bill over a misunderstanding of risk management. Levees aren't supposed to fail but they do all the time. The current NFIP debt is so high specifically because of levee failures inLouisiana."

Gannon adds, "Where levees reduce flood risk, as Pryor rightly states they do in his home state, the insurance rates should reflect that. The Senate bill and compromise language does exactly that."

The final bill includes not only the flood bill, but a 27 ½-month extension of the highway transportation program and provisions retaining the rate on student loans at 3.4 percent.

The NFIP portion accepts the House provision regarding a transition to actuarial rates over five years. The original Senate bill called for a four-year transition.

Language in the House bill that would force the Federal Emergency Management Agency to return the approximately 800,000 flood properties formerly serviced by State Farm to the private sector was deleted.

On the "wind vs. water" issue, the bill calls for the use of hurricane data collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in conjunction with engineering formulas to be developed by FEMA to double check flood-insurance claims for total-loss "slab" properties.