Seen on the wires:
The U.S. Senate voted on Tuesday to extend until 2013 a federal program that insures millions of homes against floods and to forgive $17 billion in debt the program built up during Hurricane Katrina.
In an issue of concern to major insurers such as Allstate Corp and State Farm, the Senate approved renewing the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) in a 92-6 vote. Last week, it rejected adding wind damage coverage to the program.
The House of Representatives last year also voted to extend the program, but added wind coverage, and refused to forgive the debt.
Now, the big question is — with a general election this fall, will anything actually happen on NFIP reauthorization? Or, maybe another way to think of this is: who can get the most votes for getting reauthorization done…and what sort of a mess will be made in the quest to buy voters’ support?