FEMA chief sees bigger role for insurers in flood coverage
Congress should consider encouraging private insurance companies to provide coverage beyond the current limits set by the National Flood Insurance Program, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency told lawmakers Thursday.
Craig Fugate told the Senate Banking Committee that he agrees with Sen. David Vitter, R-La, that limits in coverage, last raised in 1994, should be adjusted upward.
But Fugate said that allowing the federal government to provide a “basic level” of coverage, and then turning over larger coverage amounts to private insurance companies, might be a way to prevent the national program, run by his agency, from going further into deficit.
The program is now $17 billion in debt, mostly from claims paid out after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.
nola.com
6/9/11
Magnolia Tribune
