The Senate Banking Committee today votes on a flood insurance reform bill Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Mel Martinez, R-Fla., will try to amend to include wind damage – an explosive issue that has roiled coastal communities since Hurricane Katrina.
The House passed a flood insurance bill last month 263 to 146 that included the “multiperil” provision giving policy holders the option to purchase wind coverage, but the bill the Senate Banking Committee will consider or “mark up” will not include the wind provision.
Martinez, however, will offer the wind amendment, said spokesman Ken Lundberg, because “it’s a great idea. It would help Florida and other coastal areas.”
Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss., who lost his home in Katrina, said he had spoken with Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and ranking member Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and “Dodd said he needed to do more research and Shelby’s against it.”
Magnolia Tribune
