Congress can stop an unplanned shutdown of the government and suspension of the National Flood Insurance Program after NAR is able to make a huge campaign for advocacy.
After a huge advocacy campaign organized by the National Association of REALTORS(r)–which included a unique nationwide appeal to action — Congress approved an emergency spending agreement on Saturday to prevent an impasse in the federal government and increase the power to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
The bipartisan agreement will fund the federal government at levels of 2023 until November. 17 to ensure that federal employees and military personnel and also extending funding for other essential programs such as those of the Federal Aviation Administration.
NAR released a call for take action on Friday night in the midst of Congress heading towards the first shutdown of the government in nearly five years. In its urgent message, it urged members of its 1.5 million registered members to reach out to Congress and warn them of the dangers of letting NFIP be dissolved in the event of a government shutdown. In the early hours of Saturday, the tens of thousands of Realtors(r) across the country had responded to the call.
“This is a call to all hands on deck to action. Join other REALTORS(r) in soliciting Congress to expand the NFIP in order to prevent disruptions to the real estate market and protecting families from the most expensive and most frequent natural disaster in our country floods,” the message read. “A failure to extend the NFIP will affect buying flood insurance in over 200.000 communities across the country. A single inch of floodwater can result in $25,000 damages to structures, and without the ability to purchase flood insurance, people must rely heavily on restricted federal disaster assistance.”
More Info
- Primer: What the Government Shutdown Means
- Private Flood Insurance Resources
The national effort capped a week of action by NAR’s advocacy team. NAR issued a targeted call to act on the NFIP earlier in the week through its Federal Political Coordinator program. The program aims to reach and educate all 535 members of Congress with an urgent message on the NFIP’s critical role in the economy.
“You don’t have to look any further than the heart-breaking flooding in New York this weekend to see how important this program is to every American community,” states NAR Chief Advocacy Officer Shannon McGahn. “An extended period of inactivity for NFIP authority could result in the number of real estate transactions that occur each day. The message we sent out was heard.
“The NFIP’s authority to write flood insurance has been extended 25 times since 2017 alone,” McGahn says. “This is largely due to NAR’s advocacy efforts on NFIP.”
NAR has also released an urgent warning for members that explains how a shutdown could impact the real estate market, which accounts for nearly 20 percent of our U.S. economy. The primer outlines how various programs are affected, ranging from EPA designations of wetlands and rural housing programs as well as programs like the EB-5 Visa program.
“We are grateful that Congress has come to a compromise to prevent this shutdown from happening and to prevent the government from shutting down, but our work isn’t finished. It’s a temporary extension and we’ll be back during November,” McGahn says. “We remain on the alert for action on and we will cooperate with Congressional leaders over the next 45 days to ensure that NFIP is renewed for a longer time, and that it does not get a devastating expiration. We’ve seen this before and one thing is for certain: in an impasse, nobody gets a win.”
“In fact, the U.S. model of independent, local broker marketplaces is widely considered the best value and most efficient model in the world, with no hidden or extra costs and with more complete, verified information compared to other countries. We look forward to arguing our case in court,” the NAR statement read.