WASHINGTON - The Senate and House last week approved legislation to boost the federal flood insurance program's borrowing authority to $18.5 billion. President Bush is expected to sign the measure shortly.
The National Flood Insurance Program, from which property owners in federally designated flood zones are required to buy coverage, had announced Nov. 14 that it could not pay claims because it was broke. "The additional borrowing authority will enable us to go forward at least through the first of the year," a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which administers the program, said Monday.
However, he said, "we may have to go back and ask for additional borrowing authority." FEMA expects 225,000 claims worth $23 billion as a result of the hurricanes that hit the Gulf Coast this year, he said.
