Senate passes bill to renew national flood insurance

By Billy House
Media General News Service
Published: May 14, 2008

WASHINGTON – The Senate voted today 92 to 6 to continue the National Flood Insurance Program.

Along with renewing the program through 2013, the Senate’s bill creates a special commission to study the availability and affordability of catastrophic insurance for areas prone to events like hurricanes and earthquakes to determine whether a separate national program is necessary.

That commission of not-yet-named experts would be given nine months to do its work.

Florida’s Republican Sen. Mel Martinez voted for the bill. The state’s Democratic senator, Bill Nelson, voted against it, although he had led the way in calling for the study of a catastrophic insurance fund. Nelson’s office said he objected to a number of other provisions.

The National Flood Insurance Program protects more than 5 million property owners, but it has fallen nearly $18 billion in debt following payouts stemming from hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma in 2005.

The program includes 2.1million policyholders in Florida, about 41 percent of its policyholders nationwide.

The changes that the bill passed today would make to the program are intended to put the program on a more sound financial footing, such as forgiving much of the program’s debt and phasing out subsidies on premiums for businesses and second homes.

The Senate declined to follow the House bill to allow federal flood insurance customers an option of also buying wind coverage under the program.

Lawmakers from Florida and other Gulf states have been pushing for that option, but the White House has claimed it was too costly. That option not being in the bill was one of the reasons Nelson voted against the measure, his office said.

That difference in the House and Senate versions will now have to be worked out for a final bill. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, a Democrat from Massachusetts, has said he would consider dropping the wind language if it stood in the way of a two-chamber agreement.

After today’s vote, a national coalition of first responders, disaster experts and other organizations urged warned that the commission to study the benefits of a national catastrophe fund needs to act quickly and decisively

“The safety and security of American families demands quick consensus on a comprehensive program that encourages mitigation and preparation before catastrophe strikes as well as a financial backstop to ensure that they can repair, rebuild and recover in the aftermath of the next devastating natural event,” said retired Admiral James M. Loy, co-chair of ProtectingAmerica.org.

Reporter Billy House can be reached at or at 1 (202) 662-7673.