RIMS urges Congress to reauthorize NFIP
Reprints
The Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc. has joined a coalition of organizations lobbying Congress for a reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program, which is scheduled to expire Friday.
The coalition, which includes the American Insurance Association, the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers, the Property and Casualty Insurers Association of America, the Reinsurance Association of America and the Wholesale & Specialty Insurance Association, among others, has sent a letter to Congress urging immediate action to avoid a program lapse, RIMS said Monday in a statement.
“The NFIP must be periodically reauthorized,” the joint letter stated. “However, Congress has yet to pass a long-term extension of the NFIP, as debate continues regarding options for reforming the program. This has already resulted in a series of seven stop-gap extensions and two brief lapses in 2017 and 2018.
“A lapse of the NFIP will leave millions of Americans at risk and cause disruption in the over 20,000 communities across the country that depend on the program,” the letter continued. “Furthermore, a lapse in the NFIP may slow down recovery efforts related to hurricanes Florence and Michael by making it harder for disaster assistance recipients to satisfy flood insurance requirements.”
The organizations are working with Congress to enact a long-term reauthorization while also supporting efforts to reform and modernize the NFIP and increase the number of properties insured against flood peril and they remain committed to that work, but “it is critical that in the meantime the NFIP remain available to those who need it,” the letter stated.
Read Next
-
House votes to extend NFIP through Nov. 30
The U.S. House of Representatives voted to extend the National Flood Insurance Program in its current form until Nov. 30, but the head of the House Financial Services Committee took the Senate to task for failing to act on the House’s proposed overhaul of the program.
