Senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker have requested immediate, sweeping and long-term reforms to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) following a litany of failures in its handling of claims from survivors of super storm Sandy.
Two senators urge vast flood insurance change
“While we acknowledge the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has recently taken steps to address these issues we raised over two years ago, these actions are far too little and have come far too late,” the senators wrote in a letter to FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate. “These costly mistakes show that it is absolutely critical that FEMA regain control over the NFIP, which is why we urge you to go further and fundamentally reform the way FEMA does business with its contractors to truly make policyholders the priority.”
The senators requested greater oversight of the NFIP, questioned the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of private Write Your Own (WYO) insurance carriers, and encouraged FEMA to examine and reconsider their future role in the program.
Specifically, the senators are recommending the following reforms to improve fairness, transparency and effectiveness of the NFIP:
Reevaluate the long-term role of WYOs (private insurance carriers) in the NFIP and whether eliminating the “middlemen” creates greater inefficiencies and cost-effectiveness
