House Passes Flood Insurance Modernization

[babylonsister]

House Passes Flood Insurance Modernization

The House has just passed the Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act of 2007 by a vote of 263-146. The bill reauthorizes for five years the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which was brought to the fore after Hurricane Katrina. The bill addresses many of the issues regarding insurance companies classifying damage as flood rather than wind so as to force the federal government to pay claims, which were brought up during extensive hearings in the new Congress. The bill addressed the issues by expanding the NFIP to provide for multiple peril coverage (wind and flood), and with an amendment introduced by Rep. Gene Taylor (MS-04) which prohibits a company that sells and services flood insurance policies from including language in its own windstorm policies that would exclude coverage of wind damage solely because flooding also contributed to the damage. It also provides for a new community outreach program, requires the updating and modernizing of flood maps, and addresses several other weaknesses in the program exposed by the 2005 hurricane season.

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http://www.speaker.gov/blog/?p=802