National Flood Insurance Program Back In Force

Our April 6 Blog Post discussed the problem that has occurred because Congress had recessed without extending authority for the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) which expired on March 28, 2010.

As we forecasted, and with the help of the insistence by the National Association of Realtors, Congress approved an extension of the NFIP at the end of last week and President Obama signed it into law within the hour. The change, part of a larger bill that covers unemployment, extends the flood insurance program to May 31, 2010; and coverage is retroactive to March 28 when the current program ran out.

The extension, which needed to be addressed immediately upon Congress coming back into session, will serve as a patch while the larger more comprehensive bill that would extend flood insurance through December 31, 2010.

“In theory, the NFIP will now return to normal operations and, since the extension is also retroactive, any new policy applications or renewals that were signed and submitted during the hiatus will be effective from the date of application (or in the case of waiting periods, the waiting period will start from the date of application),” say officials of the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America.