In an era of increasingly intense and frequent severe weather, tens of millions of Americans are all too familiar with the impacts and costs of flooding. Unfortunately, Congress has failed to update flood policy to meet the challenges of this new norm, instead choosing to continually extend its own deadline for reauthorizing the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which provides federally backed coverage for homeowners and small businesses in 22,000 communities nationwide.
The program, which is more than $20 billion in debt, is in dire need of reform. In its current form, the NFIP has failed in two of its goals—decreasing the costs from flood damage and improving the federal government’s management of flood risk—and without major improvements will continue to burn through taxpayer dollars while incentivizing policyholders to live in at-risk areas through subsidized premiums.
And yet, Congress has kicked this can down the road for the seventh time in less than a year.
Craig Fugate was administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency from 2009 to 2016.
Read the full article in The Washington Times.