Congress is working on the continuing resolution now because it wants to take off next week in observance of the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashonah. But both Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, are warning that the recess will be cancelled if an agreement can't be reached.

Jimi Grande, senior vice president of federal and political affairs for the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, voices deep concern over the decision to hold the NFIP program captive to the partisanship.

“We can no longer afford to play politics with the NFIP,” Grande says.

He adds that the NFIP has a bi-partisan reform package that received more than 400 votes in the House.

“Allowing this program to lapse again as the two parties stare each other down on the Disaster Relief Fund is unacceptable to the millions of Americans who face the flood peril,” Grande states.

Holding up the continuing resolution are Democratic demands for $6.9 billion earmarked for replenishing the Federal Emergency Management Agency's emergency disaster-relief fund. The House has approved appropriations of $3.65 billion, with part of it offset.

In a statement before the House vote, Reid says, “The bill the House will vote on tonight is not an honest effort at compromise.”

He says it “fails to provide the relief that our fellow Americans need as they struggle to rebuild their lives in the wake of floods, wildfires and hurricanes, and it will be rejected by the Senate.”

The NFIP has been in limbo since 2008, when Congress could not reach agreement on bipartisan legislation reforming and reauthorizing the program in the wake of huge losses sustained by the program through claims in 2005 stemming from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

It has been operating on temporary extensions since Sept. 30, 2008.

In 2010 alone, the NFIP lapsed four times and flood coverage could not be purchased or renewed for a total of 53 days.