The Bush administration is against expanding the National Flood Insurance Program to include windstorm coverage, a Treasury official bluntly told a House subcommittee last week, placing a major roadblock in the path of legislation to create all-perils federal homeowners coverage.

"The administration opposes H.R. 920," Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy Phillip Swagel said in testimony before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity.

However, with White House opposition leaving the stand-alone bill dead in the water, insurance industry officials are concerned about plans by Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee to resurrect the concept by adding a windstorm coverage provision to H.R. 1862--a bill introduced earlier that would reform the NFIP and increase its borrowing authority.