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With the odds of a government shutdown rising as next week’s March 14 debt ceiling deadline approaches, lawmakers are rolling out legislation that would protect vital services like the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
“NFIP’s authority to provide flood insurance is currently set to expire at midnight on March 14, 2025,” the National Association of Realtors warned in a bulletin. “NAR is making every effort to secure a long-term reauthorization of the program.”
If the program is allowed to lapse, NAR warns that the NFIP cannot sell new or renew flood insurance policies after 11:59 pm Eastern time on March 14, 2025. If that happens, the federal requirement to purchase flood insurance would be suspended — leaving it up to lenders to decide whether to make loans in special flood hazard areas without insurance, NAR said. Existing policies will remain in effect and claims will be paid as long as funding holds out.
Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy introduced a bill, S. 824, Wednesday that would reauthorize the NFIP under its current form until Sept. 30. Lawmakers have approved short-term authorizations of the program 32 times since 2017, Politico’s Katherine Hapgood reported.
Democrats are warning a government shutdown is not out of the question if they’re not included in ongoing talks to pass a full-year continuing resolution favored by President Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson. Many Democrats are angry about staff reductions and spending cuts that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has implemented without Congressional authorization.
Senate Republicans met with Elon Musk — the public face of DOGE — on Wednesday to discuss legislation that would make DOGE’s spending cuts permanent, NBC News reported.
Republicans are pushing for a renewal of 2017 tax cuts signed into law during President Trump’s first administration that many Democrats oppose. The House on Feb. 25 approved a Fiscal Year 2025 budget resolution on party lines that would increase the U.S. deficit by $2.8 trillion, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan public policy organization.
Beyond disagreements over tax and spending policy, lawmakers “are making a mockery of the budget process,” the group’s president, Maya MacGuineas, said Monday.
“It’s not just that they miss the occasional deadline, they don’t make a single one,” MacGuineas said in a statement. “They race ahead to pass tax cuts without putting a real budget in place. They borrow for new spending and tax cuts, when what the nation needs is a debt reduction plan.”
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