Flood insurance bill passed in U.S. House

WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives, in what is being called a rare act of bipartisanship, passed a bill that would protect millions of American homeowners and businesses from dramatic increases in their flood insurance premiums, according to Business Insurance.

With a vote of 306-91, the Republican-led House sent the measure — the Homeowners Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014 — to the Democratic-led Senate for likely final approval, the article stated.

According to the article, homeowners and businesses were facing premiums hikes of up to tenfold or more as result of a two-year-old law, but the proposed bill would limit annual increases of any individual policy under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) to no more than 18 percent.

The legislation also instructs the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to have "an affordability target that would seek to limit the cost of a flood insurance policy to 1 percent of a home's total coverage amount,” the article noted.

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