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The House passed a $1.2 trillion appropriations bill to prevent a partial government shutdown that would extend the National Flood Insurance Program through the end of September with retroactive effect, even if the Senate failed to pass the bill by a midnight deadline.
Bob Broeksmit, president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association, said the industry group “commends congressional leaders and appropriators for including an extension to the National Flood Insurance Program in the bill.”
“Importantly, this provision is crafted to be retroactive and avoid any disruption to the flood insurance agency if the Senate fails to meet tonight’s statutory deadline,” Broxmit said.
The Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024 narrowly passed the House of Representatives on Friday, facing opposition from conservative Republicans including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who proposed a recall vote during the vote Motion by Speaker Mike Johnson.
A motion to suspend the rules and pass the funding bill requires a two-thirds majority, or 285 of the 432 MPs present, to pass.it Received 286 votes185 Democrats and 101 Republicans supported the bill.
According to Politico, more Republicans (112) voted against the bill than for it, with some complaining that negotiators hammered out a 1,012-page bill that contained hundreds of bills for members’ pet projects that were released 32 hours before the vote. Project funding.
Republican supporters said The appropriations bill delivers $200 billion in spending cuts over 10 years, “strategically increasing defense spending, eliminating wasteful Democratic spending, and making targeted cuts to overfunded non-defense programs.”
in a statement The bill released by the White House on Thursday said it rejects “the extreme spending cuts and harmful riders proposed by House Republicans” while expanding affordable child care and supporting early childhood education through Head Start.
According to the National Association of Realtors, if the bill does not pass, the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) will not be able to sell or renew flood insurance after 11:59 pm ET on March 22, 2024.
NAR said in a statement that existing NFIP policies will remain in effect until their expiration dates and claims will continue to be paid “as long as FEMA has funds on hand.” Website FAQ.
Broxmit said that with the crisis averted for now, the MBA “will work with policymakers on both sides of the aisle on long-term reauthorization of this critical program.”
Created in 1968 to help protect homeowners from flood damage and encourage sound land use, the NFIP collects $4.6 billion in premiums, fees and surcharges from 4.7 million homeowners and provides more than $1.3 trillion in coverage.
Potential homebuyers who want to purchase a home in a flood-prone area often cannot get approved for a mortgage without obtaining such coverage from a government or private insurance company.
The government’s flood insurance program was meant to be self-sustaining, but the subsidized premiums paid by many homeowners were not enough to cover the mounting claims, which saddled the NFIP with billions of dollars in debt that often left it at the mercy of Congress .
Congress canceled $16 billion in NFIP debt in 2017, but the program owes the U.S. Treasury more than $20.5 billion, leaving it with less than $10 billion in borrowing authority, according to the Congressional Research Service January report.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the administrator of the NFIP, is implementing controversial risk-based premium increases that many states are challenging in court.
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