Mississippi Rep. Taylor Urges Obama to Reform Flood Insurance Program

Using President Obama’s visit to New Orleans this week as his backdrop, Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., again urged the Administration to reform the National Flood Insurance Program, including adding wind coverage to the national program.

In an open letter to Obama, Taylor urged the Administration to engage “more actively in reforming the National Flood Insurance Program, providing for better disaster insurance coverage, and improving other disaster response and recovery programs.”

Taylor has authored the Multiple Peril Insurance Act of 2009, which aims to fill gaps in coverage for coastal property owners.

“If no other lesson is learned from the experience of the Mississippi Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, we should have learned that coastal residents need to be able to buy hurricane insurance that will cover hurricane damage without gaps in coverage, without lengthy disputes over the cause of damage, and without inherent conflicts of interest that allow insurance companies to shift liabilities to taxpayers,” Taylor stated.

Taylor said the nation’s flood program depends on the integrity of levees and other flood control structures, the accuracy of the flood risk maps, and local enforcement of building codes and flood plain management standards. “All of these factors call for better federal administration and oversight of contracts,” he said.

Topics Flood Mississippi