Senate backs National Flood Insurance Program extension

WASHINGTON—The Senate has voted to extend the National Flood Insurance Program through Sept. 30.

In a Wednesday vote, the Senate approved a stand-alone measure already approved by the House that would extend the program through September.

A separate Senate tax bill had called for extending the program, among other things, but Senate leaders pulled the stalled bill after deciding they could not stop a filibuster directed at other parts of the measure.

The NFIP lapsed June 1 and will have to be reauthorized this fall or it will lapse again.

The latest extension is one in a series of short-term fixes because the House and Senate have been unable to agree on whether the program should be expanded to provide windstorm as well as flood coverage, an expansion that insurers oppose.