With the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) set to expire on September 30, the American Academy of Actuaries is urging Congress to both renew and improve it.
“From a public-interest standpoint, there are two essential tasks facing lawmakers: first, renewing the program before a lapse causes disruptions; and second, improving the flood insurance framework and not just extending it in its current form,” said Rade Musulin, the academy’s vice president of casualty.
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In an August 23 letter to the Senate Banking Committee, the academy urged the senate to consider improvements to the NFIP that would:
- Encourage growth of the private flood insurance market by making it clear that private insurance would satisfy mortgage-lending requirements and by sharing NFIP flood loss data with private insurers.
- Protect against the creation of “artificial price disparities” between NFIP and private policies.
- Address the NFIP’s multibillion-dollar debt and the need to plan ahead for future losses from mega-storms.
- Reduce storm damage by expanding risk mitigation.
- Modernize flood mapping.
- Account for special conditions and differences affecting multifamily properties and “repetitive-loss” properties.
- Anticipate the physical effects of rising sea levels and plan for them.
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