Members of the PIA of New York met with members of their congressional delegation last week to discuss reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The meetings took place as part of PIA’s rolling year-round 2022 Advocacy Days.

PIA NY members noted that Congress must be sure to extend the authorization of the NFIP so it does not lapse before September 30. The program is currently operating on its 20^th short-term extension since 2017.

While it is imperative that the NFIP not lapse, Congress must also meaningfully address the many needed reforms required to make the program successful while providing a long-term extension. PIA members asked policymakers for a long-term reauthorization of the NFIP that would include important reforms, like continuous coverage protection for policyholders who move their flood coverage from the NFIP to the private market and later seek to return to the NFIP. A long-term reauthorization is necessary to ensure stability for the program. In their meetings, PIA members highlighted the importance of maintaining the current Write Your Own (WYO) reimbursement rate and cautioned that a reduction in the rate would likely prompt prohibitively costly cuts to NFIP agents’ commissions. PIA has strongly opposed past efforts to reduce the reimbursement rate and will continue to do so.

In addition, PIA NY members told policymakers their experience with the new NFIP rating system, Risk Rating 2.0. PIA supports RR 2.0 because it assigns premium rates to individual properties using substantially more granular data than the legacy system. The new factors align an individual property’s rate more closely with its actual level of flood risk. That said, PIA recognizes the need for affordability measures for certain NFIP policyholders whose premiums are rising as part of RR2.