National Flood Insurance Program Legislation Introduced

A National flood insurance reform bill was introduced last Friday (March 11) by Rep. Judy Biggert (R-IL-13^th), Chair of the Insurance, Housing and Community Opportunity Subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee (the "Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2011" – no bill number yet).  Here is a link to Friday’s Subcommittee hearing where Rep. Biggert discussed the bill.  And here is a link to a pdf file of the bill.

 

Another bill (H.R. 1026) with the same “reform” objective but differing means was introduced the day before (March 10) by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA-35^th), with six co-sponsors, “to extend the authorization for the national flood insurance program, to identify priorities essential to reform and ongoing stable functioning of the program.”  Here is Rep. Waters’ press release on the bill.  This bill is essentially a reintroduction of H.R. 5114, the “Flood Insurance Reform and Priorities Act of 2010,” also introduced by Rep. Waters and passed by the House 329-90 last July, but not considered by the Senate.  Sources indicate that Rep. Biggert may be willing to become a co-sponsor of H.R. 1026.

 

Both bills would reauthorize the National Flood Insurance Program (a program intended to reduce flood risk, encourage smart floodplain management and provide affordable flood insurance) through September 30, 2016.  On September 30, 2010, the President signed the National Flood Insurance Program Reextension Act of 2010, which Congress passed on September 24, 2010. That law extended the National Flood Insurance Program until September 30, 2011.

See our other recent articles on flood insurance reform here and here (in each case the flood insurance piece is about half way into the blog posting).