Sponsors (2)
The bill protects homeowners' continuous-coverage rate protections when they hold qualifying private flood policies, at the potential cost of reduced NFIP revenue and added administrative burdens for federal administrators.
Homeowners and renters with qualifying private flood insurance will have those policy periods counted as continuous coverage, preserving premium-rate protections and preventing loss of grandfathering or higher mortgage-related flood-insurance rates.
Property owners who use private flood policies to satisfy mortgage flood-insurance requirements avoid coverage gaps that could otherwise trigger higher rates or loss of existing rate protections.
Taxpayers and the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) could face reduced premium revenue or weakened risk-pooling if private coverage displaces NFIP policies, potentially increasing long-term program costs or fiscal exposure.
Federal flood-insurance administrators (e.g., FEMA staff) will face increased administrative complexity and verification burdens to confirm private policies meet continuous-coverage standards, raising implementation costs and potential processing delays.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires FEMA to count uninterrupted NFIP or qualifying private flood insurance as continuous coverage for all continuous-coverage rules.
Official title: To amend the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 to allow for the consideration of private flood insurance for the purposes of applying continuous coverage requirements, and for other purposes.
Introduced December 11, 2025 by Kathy Castor · Last progress December 11, 2025
Treats private-market flood insurance policies that satisfied the statutory purchase requirement the same as National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) coverage for purposes of any continuous-coverage rule. In practice, the FEMA Administrator must count uninterrupted periods when a property was covered by either an NFIP policy or an approved private policy as "continuous coverage," which can affect premium rating, surcharges, or waiting-period calculations tied to continuous coverage rules.