Adequate flood protection is vital to the resiliency of communities across America. Home and business owners must have access to quality flood insurance coverage at affordable rates to recover more quickly and completely following a flood event.
Despite increased flooding nationwide, the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) has been shrinking. In 2009, there were a record 5.7 million NFIP policies in force. By 2017, there were just over 5.1 million NFIP policies in force, a decrease of approximately 10%1.
According to FEMA, in May 2018, 69% of the residential properties in Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHA) did not have a NFIP policy. Outside of the SFHAs, 98% of residential properties did not have a NFIP policy. In total, 96.2% of residential properties in the U.S. do not have federal flood insurance. While the private flood insurance market is growing to alleviate additional flood risk exposure, the cumulative coverage levels are profoundly insufficient.
This extreme uninsured and underinsured risk is a threat that can only be effectively addressed through a combination of a healthy NFIP and a robust private flood insurance market.
Year after year, the NFIP has received short-term reauthorizations from Congress. Moving forward, it will be critical to pass a long-term reauthorization bill and to tackle much-needed reforms that will make the program more sustainable and keep coverage affordable.
FAIR supports full, long-term reauthorization of the NFIP and public policy improvements necessary to both encourage growth in the private flood insurance market and protect consumers.
1 FEMA Total Policies in Force by Calendar Year (https://www.fema.gov/total-policies-force-calendar-year)
Flooding is the most common and costly natural disaster in the United States. In addition to supporting comprehensive flood insurance reform, FAIR supports efforts to make the U.S. more resilient to the impact of flooding. This includes efforts to create more flood-ready infrastructure, fund mitigation projects across the country, and efforts to incentivize individual property owners to better prepare their property from flood losses. These efforts are critical for preparing our country for future flooding and from the impacts of climate change. Furthermore, these efforts would reduce the losses from a disaster and would in turn help reduce the cost of insurance for consumers.
Legislation FAIR Supports in the 117th Congress (2021-2022):
On Thursday, December 2, 2021, Congress passed a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the federal government and authorize the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) through February 18, 2022. Both funding and the NFIP had been set to expire on December 3, 2021. The NFIP had previously been authorized through December 3, 2021, in a similar…
Flooding is the most common and costly natural disaster in the United States. According to the Pew Charitable Trusts, flood-related disasters have cost more than $850 billion in damages and losses since 2000. To make matters worse, the frequency and severity of flood-related events are predicted to grow over the next several decades. In fact,…
News Source: Insurance Journal Author: William Rabb Date: October 13, 2021 Just as new research shows that a fourth of the critical infrastructure in the U.S. – along with an increasing number of homes and businesses – are at risk of flooding in the next 30 years, FEMA is seeking public input on floodplain standards and…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Federal Association for Insurance Reform (FAIR) sends Letter to Congress: NFIP Reauthorization, Risk Rating 2.0, & Affordability This morning, FAIR sent a letter to the House Committee on Financial Services and the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. Specifically, FAIR supports full, long-term reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program…
News Provided By: The Hill Article Author: Rachel Frazin Date: April 1, 2021 The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on Thursday unveiled changes to the National Flood Insurance Program that it says will be aimed at being more equitable. A fact sheet from the agency said that it will be able to do this by…
On Friday, December 20th, President Donald Trump signed a bill extending the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) through September 30th, 2020. The NFIP authorization was set to expire at midnight on Friday. While FAIR applauds the one year extension, we will continue to advocate for a longer-term extension that includes needed structural reforms to the…
FAIR is proud to participate in the South Florida Delegation’s 2019 Washington, DC Summit. For the past several months, FAIR has collaborated with other members of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce and US Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz to provide leadership on the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) Reauthorization. The Summit will be held…
Best’s Insurance News & Analysis – August 12, 2019 09:58 AM OLDWICK, N.J. – The fledgling market for private flood insurance has made gains in both direct premiums written and in the number of insurers offering the coverage, helped by an improving regulatory climate and advances in technology. Direct premiums written rose 70% to about…
U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, chair of the Sandy Task Force and a senior member of the Senate Banking Committee that oversees the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), today unveiled new, comprehensive and bipartisan legislation to extend the NFIP for five years while instituting a series of sweeping reforms to address the waste, abuse and mismanagement…
On June 10, 2019, the House Financial Services Committee passed H.R. 3167, the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) Reauthorization Act of 2019, extending the NFIP for 5 years. The bill will need to now be considered by the House Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management. The bill includes the below reforms to the…
On June 6, 2019, President Trump signed legislation passed by Congress that extends the National Flood Insurance Program’s (NFIP’s) authorization to September 30, 2019. Congress must now reauthorize the NFIP by no later than 11:59 pm on September 30, 2019. Learn more below: FEMA: National Flood Insurance Program: Reauthorization