Flood insurance: Congress opens door to private coverage alternatives
H.R. 6620 — To amend the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 to allow for the consideration of private flood insurance for the purposes of applying continuous coverage requirements, and for other purposes. · Filed by Kathy Castor (D-FL) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Dec 11, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill amends federal flood insurance law to count private flood insurance toward the federal government's continuous coverage requirement. Currently, only National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) coverage counts; this change allows property owners who maintained private flood insurance to satisfy federal continuity rules without gaps, making it easier to switch between private and federal coverage.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative effect is to expand the definition of qualifying continuous coverage to include private flood insurance, removing a regulatory barrier that favored the federal program. This is a technical amendment that increases consumer choice in the flood insurance market.
What the text implies
- May reduce NFIP enrollment and premium revenue if private insurers capture market share from homeowners previously locked into federal coverage by continuity rules.
- Could shift flood risk exposure from the federal government (NFIP) to private insurers, potentially concentrating catastrophic loss risk in the private market if major events occur.
- Homeowners with private coverage may face lower premiums but potentially weaker protections if private policies exclude certain flood types or have higher deductibles than NFIP equivalents.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Homeowners gain flexibility to use private flood insurance without penalty and can switch between private and federal coverage without losing continuity credit. This reduces artificial lock-in to the NFIP and expands consumer choice in a competitive insurance market.
Who stands to gain
- private flood insurance companies
- property owners with private flood insurance
Named in the bill
National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), National Flood Insurance Act of 1968, Flood Disaster Protection Act of 1973, private flood insurers
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Dec 11, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Dec 11, 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
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 5 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $1,510,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 64 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 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Kathy Castor, the sponsor, reported $1,028,281 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Reinsurance Assn of America — $1,100,000 on 3 filings
- Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America — $410,000 on 2 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 (754 characters) on Jun 10, 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.
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