U.S. House committee passes wind coverage bill

U.S. House committee passes wind coverage bill, but odds of final approval steep

By Sean Reilly

April 28, 2010, 6:31AM

View full size(The Mississippi Press/Jon Hauge) U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor. D-Bay St. Louis, said his measure would help avert the kind of "wind versus water" lawsuits that followed Hurricane Katrina in 2005.WASHINGTON -- Legislation to add optional windstorm coverage to the federal flood insurance program again passed a House committee Tuesday, but appears to face the same steep odds that doomed it two years ago.

Under the measure approved by the House Financial Services Committee, flood insurance policyholders could also get government-backed wind coverage. The committee approved the measure 40-25 on a mostly party-line vote. A committee spokeswoman did not know when the full House might take it up.

As private insurers continue to pull back from the Gulf Coast, the measure's lead sponsor, Mississippi Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Bay St. Louis, has said that it would give property owners a better alternative to state wind pools.

In the event of future storms, Taylor contends, his measure would help avert the kind of "wind versus water" lawsuits that followed Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

His approach has attracted numerous opponents, ranging from environmentalists who say it would encourage risky development, to conservatives who object to more government involvement in the marketplace.

Although optional wind coverage has received House approval in the past, the Senate scuttled a similar proposal two years ago on a 74-19 vote. Among the critics is Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, who says it could lead to more taxpayer liability for the flood program, already almost $19 billion in debt to the federal treasury.

On a separate voice vote Tuesday, the financial services committee also approved a bill to keep the flood insurance program -- which has twice lapsed in the last two months -- in business for another five years. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., also would delay implementation of new flood maps, allowing property owners in newly classified flood zones to wait five years before having to buy flood insurance policies.

The flood insurance program, created in 1968 because private insurers were reluctant to cover water damage, now has some 5.6 million policies nationwide, according to the most recent available statistics. Of those, some 56,300 are in Alabama and almost 76,500 are in Mississippi. In both states, the bulk of policyholders are concentrated in coastal counties.