Flood Program Imperiled?

Another reprieve for National Flood Insurance Program is in question after a temporary extension to the oft-extended program was dropped from a jobs bill advancing in the Senate.

The dropping of the NFIP extension came as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sought to trim the $85 billion Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act down to a more politically viable $15 billion package. Although the larger bill had bipartisan support from Senate Finance Committee, Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley, (R-Iowa), Reid has said he favors a series of pared-down bills as opposed to a large one.

The last temporary extension of the NFIP, contained within the 2010 Defense Appropriations Bill that passed the Senate in December of last year, is set to expire on Feb. 28, 2010. A long-term extension of the NFIP has foundered upon how to fund the debt-laden program and whether or not to include a provision for wind damage.