CUNA supports long-term authorization of National Flood Insurance Program

CUNA strongly supports efforts to pass a long-term reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program through 2027, it wrote to the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing, Community Development, and Insurance Wednesday. The committee conducted a hearing on reauthorization and reforming the NFIP, including discussion of several pieces of legislation.

“Beyond the necessary long-term reauthorization of the NFIP in the National Flood Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2022, CUNA further applauds the committee’s efforts to ensure that the cost of flood insurance premiums is rooted in the actual flooding risk of the property, including the  improvement, expansion and modernization of floodplain mapping; the refunding of premiums paid on properties inadvertently included in special flood hazard areas; and the reduction of premiums based on the implementation of flood mitigation steps,” the letter reads.

CUNA also:

• Has reservations about a proposed pilot programs to establish flood insurance premium discounts through means testing, as it could create unintended consequences.
• Requests the committee consider expansion of participation in a proposed data exchange program to mortgage originators and servicers regarding secured or intended to be secured by non-first-position liens.
• Urges the committee to include a representative on a proposed Federal Flood Insurance Advisory Committee with knowledge of mortgage origination and the housing finance sector. This language is included in the National Flood Insurance Program Administrative Reform Act of 2022.”
• Supports a decrease in the cap on annual premium increases to 9% (down from 18% proposed in draft legislation).