Congress extends federal flood insurance through 2026, protecting millions of homeowners
H.R. 5848 — NFIP Retroactive Renewal and Reauthorization Act · Filed by Mike Ezell (R-MS) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Oct 28, 2025 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill extends the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), a federal program that provides flood insurance to property owners, from its current expiration date of September 30, 2023, through December 31, 2026. If enacted after September 30, 2025, the extension is made retroactive to that date, meaning the program will be treated as continuously authorized even if Congress allows a lapse before passing this bill.
Why we flagged it
The bill performs a straightforward statutory amendment: it extends an existing federal insurance program's authorization window by three years and includes a retroactive effective date to prevent coverage gaps. This is routine legislative housekeeping for a program nearing expiration.
What the text implies
- Retroactive effective date (subsection c) creates a legal fiction that the program remained authorized even if Congress allows a lapse between Sept 30, 2025 and enactment; this may affect claims filed during any gap and could create ambiguity about insurer obligations during a technical authorization void.
- The bill does not address NFIP's structural solvency issues (the program has historically operated at a deficit and carries debt); extension alone does not resolve underlying fiscal pressure, suggesting future reauthorization battles are likely.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Homeowners and businesses in flood-prone areas retain access to the only federally-backed flood insurance available in many markets; continuous authorization prevents coverage lapses that would leave property owners uninsured and unable to obtain mortgages. The retroactive clause protects against gaps in coverage if Congress delays enactment.
Who stands to gain
- property owners in flood-prone areas (access to affordable federal flood insurance)
- mortgage lenders (borrowers can maintain required flood insurance coverage)
Named in the bill
National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), National Flood Insurance Act of 1968, Section 1309(a) (financing), Section 1319 (program expiration), House Committee on Financial Services
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Oct 28, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Oct 28, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Financial Services · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Financial Services”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 3 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $1,100,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 68 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Mike Ezell, the sponsor, reported $480,431 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Reinsurance Assn of America — $1,100,000 on 3 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 23, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (652 characters) on Aug 17, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 23, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Congress extends federal flood insurance through 2026, protecting millions of homeowners” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr5848 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.