Meanwhile, the Senate is setting the stage for prompt legislative action on the issue. According to industry lobbyists intimately involved in the National Flood Insurance Program, Senate staffers will be spending the current Thanksgiving recess “whittling down” proposed amendments to the National Defense Reauthorization Act (NDAA), S. 1867.

The lobbyist said that, “there is no guarantee” that the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act, S. 1610, will be on the list cleared for floor action, but it has “broad bipartisan support.”

If the flood bill—sponsored by Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.—clears various hurdles and passes the Senate through the NDAA in some form, it will go directly to conference and therefore bypass the need for action by the House Financial Services Committee, where there is significant opposition to disrupting the path to actuarial rates imposed by the Biggert-Waters Act, the lobbyist said.

Under the Landrieu/Menendez bill, most of the rate increases imposed by Biggert-Waters would be delayed for up to four years. Only provisions imposing actuarial rates on businesses and second homes would be retained under S. 1610.

One industry lobbyist who is closely tracking the issue says “the Landrieu/Menendez bill has strong bi-partisan support and the support of the majority leader,” Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. “Plus not putting it on could gum up the works,” i.e., delay indefinitely action on the underlying NDAA bill. “So, it has an excellent chance,” the lobbyist said.

In a letter last week to Congress, a group of Write-Your-Own companies said that before Congress decides to revise the rate increase programs required under the Biggert-Waters Act of 2012 it “must realize and acknowledge” that any changes will take no less than six months for WYO insurers to implement.

“We hope that any proposed legislative changes would be discussed with the NFIP and other stakeholders as they are being developed to avoid further unintended consequences,” the letter said.