Flood insurance program extended, for now

July 31--Originally, S. 1182 was called the "American Legion 100th Anniversary Commemorative Coin Act," passed the U.S. Senate in August 2017, and would've required the Treasury Department to "mint and issue gold, silver and half-dollar clad commemorative coins" for that anniversary. The coins were to be minted for one year, beginning Jan. 1, 2019.

That's all out the door, at least for this bill.

Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed S. 1182 as it is now -- a temporary extension of the National Flood Insurance Program through the end of November.

"As we enter hurricane season, the need to extend the program is urgent for the 1st District," U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, R-1, said in a statement Thursday. "While I am very glad the program has been extended, we now need to work on real reforms to improve it. We must work to give the program financial stability, increase competition with the private sector and give localities more flexibility."

At present, Carter is correct -- the extension doesn't do much more than extend. The prior deadline for extending the program was the end of July, and any reforms of the program would need much longer for debate and compromise should members of Congress reach any agreement.

Should the Senate also vote to extend the program before the deadline tonight -- which is expected -- it will mark the eighth time Congress metaphorically kicked this can down the road without significant changes to its operation, changes that people of many political stripes say need addressing. Because of the deadline, the program will need another extension by a lame-duck Congress, and if reform is going to come to the program, it's going to be with a different group of people in charge.

Projections indicate Democrats will take one or both chambers of Congress, or at least the GOP will hold with smaller majorities, but either way, between retirements and the voting out of incumbents, the discussion about what goes in and what's taken out of the NFIP is likely to have a different look next year.

Whether anything is passed is another story. There are 14 bills with "National Flood Insurance Program" in the title this session alone, along with more than two dozen devoted to flooding and disaster assistance and mitigation. A few passed, but those largely deal with appropriating money to deal with debt accrued and damage done.

For instance, H.R. 601, passed in September 2017, designated $7.4 billion to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Disaster Relief Fund, the same amount to the Housing and Urban Development agency's Community Development Block Grant program, and $450 million to the Small Business Administration's Disaster Loans Program Account.

H.R. 2266, passed in October 2017, forgave $16 billion in debt held by the NFIP and appropriated $18.67 billion to FEMA, of which up to $4.9 billion could be sent to the Community Disaster Loans Program, which would provide direct loans to local governments recovering from hurricanes Harvey, Irma or Maria.

The National Flood Insurance Program was created by Congress in 1968. The federal program enables property owners in participating communities to purchase insurance in exchange for state and community floodplain management that reduces future flood loses. Flood insurance rates are partially determined by how well communities adhere to best practices for flood management. Brunswick currently has the Federal Emergency Management Agency's second lowest rating. FEMA's Community Rating Scale gives Brunswick a 9 on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the worst rating.

Homeowners are eligible for a 5 percent reduction in flood insurance premiums for every point reduced on the Community Rating Scale.

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