[StBernard] HR3922 - Flood Insurance Buy In Plan

[Westley Annis]

HR3922, the Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Flood Insurance Buy-In Act of 2005,
filed by Rep. Gene Taylor (MS) has been sent to the House Committee on
Financial Services.  At this time, there is no further action scheduled on
the bill (the Committee does not have a schedule of hearings posted at this
time).

If you are interested in seeing this bill reach the House floor for a vote,
I urge you to write or call the members of the Committee.

This page lists all of the committee members and includes links to their
home pages and contact information:
http://financialservices.house.gov/members.asp

After reading the bill, I discovered some points of interest that people
should be aware of:

* Coverage will be for structure only.  No contents will be covered.
* You must currently have home owners insurance for this to be an option.
* You, and any future owner of the property, will be required to purchase
flood insurance in perpetuity, enforced by deed restriction.
* Coverage will be the lesser of the maximum amount of coverage available
under the NFIP or the amount of coverage on home owners policy in effect, as
of August 29, 2005.

Personally, I think this is a good bill to support.  The restrictions on
obtaining coverage and paying for the coverage are sufficient to ensure it
is not just a gravy ride for those who wish to take advantage of it.

Since the NFIP is maintained by the Federal Government, I'm quite positive
that any "interest/profit" that would have been earned, would not have
exceeded 5% which is the amount being charged over the collective 10 year
premiums needed to buy into the program.

Not a bad deal for anyone from my point of view.

Westley