ALTA Urges Congress to Extend National Flood Insurance Program
September 14, 2021
ALTA joined a coalition of 17 other groups asking Congressional leadership to extend the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) before it expires Sept. 30.
The group’s letter commended past bipartisan efforts to enact significant reforms designed to create long-term stability for policyholders, including reforms designed to improve the accuracy of flood maps, increase mitigation and address affordability.
“Although there is widespread agreement that a long-term reauthorization of a reformed NFIP is needed, allowing the program to lapse would be devastating to the policyholders across the nation who are still being impacted by COVID-19 and are facing an increasing number of severe flooding events,” the letter says. “With a lapse in the program’s authorization, policyholders would not be able to obtain coverage, or buy or sell properties of all kinds.”
For the past several years, ALTA has encouraged Congress to pass a long-term reauthorization of the NFIP, while also supporting reforming and modernizing the program.
Insured and uninsured losses from wind, storm surge and inland flooding damages to residential and commercial properties in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama caused by Hurricane Ida are estimated between $27 billion to $40 billion, according to data from CoreLogic. The analysis does not include losses sustained in the Northeast due to the flash flooding. Tropical Storm Nicholas is expected to bring additional flooding and damage to Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
Contact ALTA at 202-296-3671 or communications@alta.org.