EDITORIAL: Congress should fix flood insurance program

Aug. 31--THE NATION'S sympathies today are with the victims of the devastating flooding in Texas and Louisiana. Thousands were forced by rising waters to flee their homes, businesses, vehicles and possessions in a search for higher ground.

It will be days before they can return home, and months, if not years, for recovery to take hold and for daily life to resemble what it was before Hurricane Harvey dumped as much as 50 inches of rain on that region.

Hampton Roads residents know all too well the slog that awaits those families whose homes were damaged by the floodwaters. Numerous storms over the years have brought similar suffering to the region, most recently Hurricane Matthew in October.

According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, that storm damaged or destroyed more than 2,300 homes in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Newport News. The victims could generally be divided into two categories: those who had insurance through the federal National Flood Insurance Program and those who did not.

Those who had coverage were fortunate. Despite the bureaucratic hurdles required in filing claims through the NFIP, those homeowners were able to recoup some of their losses and speed their way to repair and recovery.

But they were a minority. Many of those affected lived outside Special Flood Hazard Areas, where homeowners are required by law to purchase coverage through the NFIP.

Those individuals found the road to recovery even more treacherous. Some, in places such as the Windsor Woods neighborhood in Virginia Beach, still have temporary storage units on driveways and front yards nearly one year later.

Communities such as Houston are about to enter that same exhausting process, and it promises to illuminate some of the many flaws in the NFIP in desperate need of congressional attention.

Estimates suggest about 52 percent of homes flooded in Houston are located in Special Flood Hazard Areas, meaning they are required to have insurance through the NFIP. That's the good news.

The bad news is that the program was already an estimated $24 billion in debt before Harvey's first raindrop fell. Created in 1968, the NIFP has a debt limit of $30 billion and is ill equipped to handle repeated payments to coastal property owners who are victimized by flooding again and again.

The calamity in Texas is estimated to be about $40 billion and those homeowners with coverage who were affected will obviously expect the federal government to settle their claims. Trouble is, the program is set to expire on Sept. 30 absent reauthorization by Congress.

Lawmakers, when they return to work on Sept. 5, already face a jam-packed calendar. They must act on the debt ceiling by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30 and pass a continuing resolution -- or, less likely, a budget -- to keep the federal government operating into October.

There was hope that reform of the NFIP would be in the cards, since members on both sides of the aisle recognize the program is unsustainable and needs substantial reform.

Disparate voices from Sen. Marco Rubio to Sen. Elizabeth Warren have talked up changes to make coverage more affordable, to open the market to more providers and to take a long look at including mitigation as a component of insurance or repair.

Sadly, in light of Harvey's widespread devastation, that now seems impossible.

Winning the necessary votes in a Republican Congress hostile to government spending always promised to be a difficult slog. Add to that the doubts about the program's unintended effects -- whether it subsidizes risky development and helps communities avoid difficult development decisions -- and it's a federal initiative that deserves a thorough debate to ensure its future viability and solvency.

But lawmakers simply cannot risk allowing the program to expire, an action that would leave thousands of flood victims in the lurch. Priority One upon their return to Washington should be reauthorization.

This can and should be an area of bipartisan focus in the coming months in order to address a needed program that no longer properly serves homeowners from Texas to here in Virginia and across the United States.

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