National Flood Insurance Program safe for 2 weeks

May 31-- May 31--In a pattern now familiar to coastal homeowners, the federally-funded National Flood Insurance Program, or NFIP, was granted a two-week extension by the U.S. House of Representatives Thursday afternoon.

The program was in danger of lapsing over the weekend after its inclusion in a $19 billion disaster recovery aid package put it in the middle of a partisan battle in the House. Two House Republicans raised objections to previously-proposed extensions in the last week because of larger disagreements over the aid package.

"These reps are from the Freedom Caucus and they have had a lot of trouble continuing the NFIP because they believe the insurance industry should be entirely private," Joe Rossi, chairman of the Massachusetts Coastal Coalition, said. "But let me tell you, there will never be a time where flood insurance is entirely private."

The flood insurance program has been in limbo since it first expired in October of 2017. Nearly a dozen short-term extension kept it alive between then and Dec. 21, when President Donald Trump signed a six-month extension set to expire Friday. ?may 31, change to 'today' in print? Lapses in January and March were the first lapses in the program since 2010.

On Thursday afternoon, the program was granted a 2-week extension about 30 hours before it was scheduled to expire. Initially, Rossi said flood insurance advocates were pushing for an extension that would take the program through September.

The flood insurance program, started in 1956, became a hot-button issue on the South Shore in 2013 when FEMA released new flood maps for Marshfield, Scituate and Duxbury that help set the rates and determine which owners must buy flood insurance. Later, maps for other South Shore communities, including Quincy, also caused an uproar.

Since the program's 2017 expiration, advocates have been pushing for major reforms to the NFIP. In the fight for reforms, Rossi said there are five major issues the coalition is focused on trying to fix: drawing accurate FEMA flood maps; if policies for severe repetitive-loss properties should continue to be written; how private flood insurance works within the national program; how mitigation funding is handled and how to make insurance affordable.

Rossi says the last several months have been the most productive in a long time when it comes to drafting meaningful reforms, but that a 2-week extension will muck up their efforts.

"This is the 11th extension since Sept. 30 of 2017, it's ridiculous," he said. "There has been significant progress in getting bills out of committee in the House since December, and we really thought that if we could a September extension that we could get something real done. But with just a two-week extension, nothing will happen."

Reach Mary Whitfill at [email protected].

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