On November 21st, the U.S. Senate passed government funding legislation that extends the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) through December 20th, 2019. The President is expected to sign it into law.
Earlier this year, the House Financial Services Committee passed legislation to reauthorize the NFIP for five years by a unanimous vote of 59-0. However, on Tuesday July 16th, the Senate, unhappy with the House bill, released the NFIPre bill. The NFIPre bill includes some similar provisions to the House bill, but is different as it includes legislation that includes several controversial items that would cap Write Your Own (WYO) compensation and does not include legislation thought to allow for bigger growth of the private flood market.
With a continuation of short term extensions, there appears to be a stalemate with no clear path forward. Currently, there is expected to be short term extensions until after the 2020 elections.
Implementation of Risk Rating 2.0 Delayed
FEMA recently postponed Risk Rating 2.0, which was supposed to be introduced with new rates in April 2020, and implement the rates in October of 2020. On November 1st, a letter was sent by a coalition of legislators (read HERE) to House leadership asking them to press FEMA to consider the consequences of perceived rate increases associated with Risk Rating 2.0’s implementation. On November 7th, FEMA announced a postponement of Risk Rating 2.0. FEMA now plans a full implementation of all occupancies on October 1st, 2021.
The MCC has produced an updated memo on the current legislative and administrative state of the NFIP, including updates on Risk Rating 2.0 that can be found HERE
Read FEMA’s press release on Risk Rating 2.0 delay HERE
