NU Online News Service, March 15, 2:58 p.m. EDT

WASHINGTON–Insurance representatives said it is unclear how promptly and in what form the House will act on new Senate legislation to extend the National Flood Insurance Program to Dec. 31.

House concerns about the bill passed by the Senate have industry officials cautioning that the program remains in limbo, and a repeat of what happened at the end of last month, when the program briefly lapsed, could well reoccur.

Currently, authorization of the program runs out March 28.

Officials of the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies and the American Insurance Association pointed out that the latest action does nothing to reform the program or provide long-term certainty.

According to NAMIC officials, the Senate extension for the program until Dec. 31 is contained in H.R. 4213, a bill which extends a number of tax cut provisions which expired at the end of last year.

According to NAMIC officials, the bill is back in the House, where staff members are working to get it the floor, hopefully this week.

But, there are concerns in the House about some of the tax extender provisions, and there might be a desire to rework the language on tax cut extenders. "That could scuttle the entire bill," said Kathy Mitchell, a NAMIC federal affairs director.

She added, "We are hopeful that the House will pass the Senate amendments to the tax extenders legislation."

An extension of the NFIP through the end of the year would give Congress the time to pass the reforms that both sides have previously supported, such as modernizing flood maps, raising policy limits and phasing out subsidies for secondary residences and vacation homes with a long-term reauthorization of the program.

"An extension through the end of this year would also give insurers and policyholders security that the program will not lapse during the storm season, when it is needed." she said.

Blaine Rethmeier, an AIA spokesman, said, "The bill is in the red zone but it hasn't crossed the goal line yet."

He said the AIA is supporting the extension through the end of December and the retroactive provision, but it still has to be reconciled before that can be implemented. The extension will provide insurers and policyholders with a level of certainty but does not address the reforms of the program itself."

The program was in limbo for two days at the beginning of the month because the Senate declined to act late in February on legislation that included a provision extending the program until March 28.

That forced the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which manages the program, to provide written guidance as to how to deal with the lapse.

The matter was further complicated because the legislation reauthorizing the program March 2 did not make the reauthorization retroactive.