Flood Bill Might Return to Insurance Committee
The Florida Senate has been advancing a bill intended to increase private market interest in making flood insurance coverage available to Floridians. However, in light of the complexities of the issue, some Senators are suggesting that recent substantial revisions to the bill should be sent back to the Banking and Insurance Committee for further review.
The Senate Banking and Insurance Committee reported the bill favorably in January, sending the bill to its other committee stops. However, changes to the bill adopted last week in the Senate General Government Appropriations Subcommittee raised questions as to how substantially the bill can be, or should be, changed without sending it back to the Banking and Insurance Committee, which has subject matter expertise. The bill’s sponsor Jeff Brandes said he will confer with Banking and Insurance Chairman David Simmons to discuss whether the revisions need further review from Simmons’ committee.
Jack Latvala and Nancy Detert of the Senate General Government Appropriations Subcommittee agreed that the bill should continue to move forward, but a strike-all amendment contained changes they called “dramatic” and in their view should be reviewed by the committee staffed to better understand insurance issues.
“I’m a little concerned about basically a strike-everything amendment being made in a committee not expert on the subject matter,” Latvala said. “I’m not sure this is the way we want to do business.”