Industry Hails Bipartisan Win for NFIP, Lauds Mapping Initiative
Federal legislators are finally heeding the call to put more resources into flood mapping and mitigation activities to ease the financial burden on the debt-ridden National Flood Insurance Program, experts say.
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Alan Rubin, a New York-based principal with Blank Rome Government Relations LLC who works with the firm’s severe weather emergency recovery team, praised many aspects of the bill, including its provision to change the Increased Cost of Compliance program, which currently provides up to $30,000 to help cover the cost of mitigation measures to reduce flood risk and enable policyholders to use ICC coverage to reduce their risk before the property floods, by raising the maximum amount available to $60,000. But he expressed concern that there was no requirement to purchase flood insurance.
“I’d like to see it be mandatory,” Mr. Rubin said. “The states can opt into this. There’s no general way to enforce this. I’d like to see it as more of a requirement out of the banking industry. When banks loan, they don’t necessarily require it. I think they should require it on the residential side, and I think they should require it on the commercial side.”
"Industry Hails Bipartisan Win for NFIP, Lauds Mapping Initiative" by Gloria Gonzalez was published in Business Insurance on June 18, 2019.