With Deadline Looming, Senators Introduce Nfip Reauthorization

As a key government funding deadline of March 14 fast approaches, Republicans in the Senate are aiming to reauthorize the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), again putting the program’s funding at risk of a lapse.

Absent a legislative remedy seeking a longer reauthorization for the program, lawmakers have instead consistently relied upon smaller scale reauthorizations in shorter tranches. This has, at times, led funding for the program to lapse before lawmakers reauthorize the program retroactively to cover any periodic funding lapses after the fact.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, introduced the reauthorization bill earlier this week as a time crunch is hitting both houses of Congress to pass either a full-fledged spending plan or stopgap spending authorization.

Kennedy has been a vocal proponent of a longer-term NFIP reauthorization. Late last year he introduced a bill seeking to authorize the program well into 2025, but in December it failed to be approved via unanimous consent, preventing it from progressing to the Senate floor. This latest reauthorization bill would extend the program as it currently operates until Sep. 30, 2025.

But according to reporting at Politico, Kennedy and his fellow Louisiana Senate Republican — Bill Cassidy — are both working on different NFIP reauthorization bills that are likely to sync up at some point in the future, according to Kennedy.

“[We’ll] probably work together,” Kennedy told Politico.

Cassidy’s bill has not yet been introduced into the Senate. But Kennedy has made it clear that he not only seeks a longer-term authorization in the future, but also reforms for the program.

In January, just before the inauguration of President Donald Trump, Kennedy told The Hill that he and Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) were asked to come up with changes to NFIP which would include other natural disasters by Senate Banking Committee Chair Sen. Tim Scott (R-N.C.).

“I just had a talk with Tim Scott,” Kennedy told The Hill on Jan.14. “He’s asked Mike Rounds and I to put together some legislation dealing not just with flood, but with all catastrophes.”

While hesitant to offer details since work had just begun, he did say that the aim would be to “improve” NFIP by “probably expanding it” without using what he called “taxpayer subsidies.” The potential program would “try to help victims of fire and wind and hail catastrophes — and do it without the federal government having to subsidize programs.”

Senators previously identified several roadblocks that make the prospect of NFIP reform a very tall order, complicated by the narrow majorities in both houses of Congress. Adding to that pressure and complicating the broader funding debate further this time is the posture of congressional Democrats.

Locked out of majorities in both houses of Congress and with limited recourse to limit the agenda of the GOP, including through the cutting of federal programs and a culling of the federal workforce, some Democrats are openly speculating about allowing a government shutdown to take place in an effort to push back against the congressional Republicans and the White House.

After unveiling the Republican funding proposal early on Saturday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is effectively daring Democrats to oppose it. Johnson is reportedly aiming to arrange a vote for the new plan as early as Tuesday, March 11.