House Moving Forward on Flood Insurance Reform
The House Financial Services Subcommittee overseeing Insurance will hold a hearing on April 1 to obtain the views of FEMA on the legislative proposals to reform the National Flood Insurance Program. The panel’s only witness will be The Honorable Craig Fugate, Administrator of FEMA.
Fugate will present FEMA’s strategy for improving the NFIP, including its flood map modernization plan. He will also report on the preliminary findings of FEMA’s three phase NFIP Reform Working Group that began in 2009 and is set to conclude in 2011.
The same House subcommittee has scheduled April 6 to vote on Chairman Biggert’s NFIP Reform proposal. NAMIC supports this proposal and has been instrumental in the inclusion of several important provisions including actuarially sound rates, updated flood plain maps and incentives for pre-disaster mitigation through building codes. NAMIC Chairman Sandy Parrillo presented these views at a March 11 legislative hearing.
After subcommittee markup on April 6, the full House Financial Services Committee is expected to consider the bill in early May. It is the goal of Chairman Biggert and her Republican colleagues to pass a bill out of the House by Memorial Day so the Senate may begin consideration well in advance of the September 30 expiration date of the NFIP.
I will be posting the testimony of Craig Fugate with my analysis on http://www.vacationlanegrp.wordpress.com in the next few days.
