The National Flood Insurance Program continues to stay alive, this time with a short extension as a result of the House of Representatives’ approval of a stopgap funding measure that will keep the government “open for business” until next Tuesday.
The NFIP was slated to lapse Friday, but the Senate had already voted to extend the NFIP through November 18. According to procedure, the full House is not able to consider the longer Senate funding bill until next Tuesday. A five-year extension passed the House, but the full Senate has not yet approved its version of the extension.
Ben McKay, senior VP of the Des Plaines, Ill.-based Property Casualty Insurers Assn. of America’s Washington office, said in a statement that his organization is pleased that the House agreed to at least a short-term compromise to prevent a lapse. ”We are hopeful that the House will pass the Nov. 18 extension on Tuesday,” he said.
“Our top priority is avoiding an NFIP lapse,” added McKay. “Moving into October, negotiations continue over the Senate's Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act that includes a five-year NFIP extension.”
Still others in the industry caution the government to consider the basic elements of the NFIP. Matt Gannon, assistant VP of federal affairs in the Indianapolis-based National Assn. of Mutual Insurance Companies, said in a statement that the NFIP “needs to more closely resemble a private insurance model, thus reducing the underfunded risk exposure to the taxpayers.” Both the House and Senate bills “take major steps towards achieving this end," he said.
