Coalition Calls for Long Term NFIP Reform

Chris Brown, executive director of the SmarterSafer Coalition, authored an op-ed appearing in today's Claims Journal, on the imperative of long-term reforms to the U.S. National Flood Insurance Program, as climate change drives growing losses and the political environment continues to be limited to temporary fixes.

SmarterSafer is a national coalition advocating for environmentally responsible and fiscally sound approaches to natural catastrophe mitigation and the promotion of public safety. The organization was founded in 2008 and has expanded over the years in terms of both its policy agenda and stakeholders.

Brown notes that "the program’s survival, marked by 28 short-term reauthorizations since 2017, resembles a temporary fix on a systemic wound, as the nation hurtles toward a future where floods are not just a possibility but a certainty. The question looms: Can a federal program drowning in uncertainty and debt truly safeguard the economic security of millions against the rising tide of extreme weather disasters?"

NFIP's latest reauthorization expires on March 22, 2024, with another short-term reauthorization likely and a lack of political consensus on the need for risk-based pricing, advanced risk modelling, and risk mitigation investments at the scale needed to turn the tide on the NFIP's rising claims costs and $20.5 billion in debt.

The full op-ed in Claims Journal is available here.

Source: SmarterSafer, https://www.smartersafer.org/2024/03/18/claims-journal-opinion-the-imperative-of-long-term-nfip-reform/