The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is a critical lifeline for millions of American homeowners, renters, and businesses in flood-prone areas. As climate change increases the frequency and severity of storms, floods are becoming more destructive and widespread, even in areas that historically haven’t seen such risks. NFIP helps ensure that families can rebuild after disaster strikes, reduces the financial burden on state and local governments, and supports the stability of the housing market.

Unfortunately, due to the Trump-Republican shutdown the NFIP’s operations are severely limited. In the middle of hurricane season, this is dangerous.

See below for specific details:

• In the height of hurricane season, the Trump-Republican shutdown has left the National Flood Insurance Program unable to issue new policies. This could threaten over 1,300 home sale closings each day, potentially locking thousands of families out of the dream of homeownership or putting them at risk if their home sales proceed without coverage.
  
  
• HUD and NFIP are now also limited in providing critical disaster relief.
  
  • HUD, which is responsible for the Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program, is unable to deploy new funding and may only have access to previously obligated funds.
    
    
  • The NFIP is also now largely limited in paying out flood insurance claims as its ability to borrow funds from Treasury is reduced from over $30 billion to $1 billion during a shutdown, and its flood mapping process ultimately comes to a halt.
    

The NFIP should never be in limbo. Ranking Member Waters has long pushed for reforming and reauthorizing the NFIP precisely to prevent this kind of reckless disruption.

###