Posted by Benji Riggins on March 1, 2010 under Flood | 
The Senate last week failed to vote on bills to extend several federal programs including jobless benefits, COBRA subsidies, transportation project funding and flood insurance before these programs expired Feb. 28.
A single senator, Jim Bunning, R-Ky., has derailed final approval of the programs’ extensions over concerns about how to pay for them, especially the extension of unemployment benefits.
The result is that the programs could be in limbo for about a week while the Senate finds a way to get the job done. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) will not be able to issue new policies, increase coverage, approve renewal policies or pay claims until Congress approves reauthorization.
Bunning maintains that Congress has not paid for these extensions through any new funding or cuts as is required. Bunning, who is not running for re-election, said he supports extension of the benefits and programs including flood insurance but feels funding should be clear.
“The only difference I have, and some of my good friends from the other side of the aisle, is that I believe we should pay for it. There is a right over the last three years of the Democratically controlled Congress. We have run up $5 trillion in debt. There has to be a time to stop that,” Bunning said on the Senate floor.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid vowed that the measures would pass sometime this week but criticized the Republican’s tactics in delaying the approval of the programs.
“We talk a lot about Senate procedure in our debates, and that’s often appropriate. But it’s also often complex,” Reid said. “The catch here is that these benefits do not need to expire. We have the ability right now to extend them for just a short time until we work out a longer-term solution. It is irresponsible not to. It is immoral.”
If approved, the current bill would only extend the NFIP for a month, until March 28. There have been several short-term extensions within the past year.
The House has already approved the bills.
Guidelines for Carriers, Agents
The Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA), which manages the flood program, issued a bulletin on Feb. 27 with guidelines for insurers and agents participating in the program in the event of a lapse. The agency did say that “any hiatus period should be brief, and most of the nearly 5.6 million flood insurance policyholders nationwide will not be affected.”
New policies for which insurers received payment on or before midnight of Feb. 28 will be issued and will become effective after the last day of effective authorization, regardless of the policy effective dates.
The NFIP recommends that companies writing flood insurance hold any premiums, renewals or added coverage endorsements received on or after Feb. 28.
Eventual reauthorization will likely be granted retroactively, and insurers can issue policies effective as of the date they received payments, according to FEMA.
Policies with a 30-day waiting period would become effective when both the 30-day waiting period has ended and Congress has reauthorized the NFIP.
By Andrew G. Simpson
March 1, 2010
Posted by Benji Riggins on February 1, 2010 under Safety |
Drivers who send text messages are six times more likely to crash, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Utah.
Using a driving simulator, drivers in the study tended to decrease their minimum following distance when texting and also showed delayed reaction times. In fact, their median reaction times increased by 30 percent when they were texting and 9 percent when they talked on the phone. Drivers who texted also showed impairment in forward and lateral control.
According to the researchers, texting “requires drivers to switch their attention from one task to the other. When such attention-switching occurs as drivers compose, read, or receive a text, their overall reaction times are substantially slower than when they’re engaged in a phone conversation.”
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Posted by Benji Riggins on January 28, 2010 under Insurance News |
Republican leaders in the North Carolina General Assembly say they want to protect North Carolinians from the Democratic-sponsored health care plan being debated in Washington.
So, they’ve come up with a plan to insulate state residents.
They want to exempt North Carolinians from a requirement that everyone carry health insurance.
“Republicans will not stand idly by and watch as citizens’ rights to make their own health care decisions are taken from them by the federal government,” Republican Senate leader Phil Berger said of national health care reform.
Republicans here are following the same game plan as those in other states, where similar efforts are underway. Arizona legislators have already agreed to put a ballot initiative before state voters to allow the state to “opt out” of a federal health care plan.
State House Speaker Joe Hackney, a Democrat, denounced the Republican talk as a political stunt. He apparently believes that thing called the U.S. Constitution might present a significant hurdle.
But why be so rash, so quick to condemn an idea that could hold all kinds of promise?
In fact, why not expand upon the proposal? Perhaps Republicans and Democrats could finally come together over a single purpose, the passing of an Omnibus Federal Exemption Act. Just imagine how many ways North Carolina could tell the federal government to go take a flying leap off a cliff.
The easy one here, of course, is an exemption from federal taxes. Legislators could call this one the Incumbency Protection Amendment. Who wouldn’t vote another term for the entire legislature after having your federal tax debt wiped clean? No more would North Carolina have to worry about sending more money to Washington than it gets back. The provision naturally would include an exemption from Internal Revenue Service audits.
Out in the business world, exemptions from federal labor laws would be popular. Eighty-hour work weeks with no overtime, paying men and women unequal pay, and eliminating the minimum wage could be the bold, new frontier of establishing North Carolina as the most business-friendly state in the country.
State lawmakers could exempt political donors from federal campaign giving limits. Oh, never mind. The Supreme Court is already handling that exemption.
In North Carolina, No Child Left Behind could become Kiss My Behind. All schools would be granted an exemption to the federal school accountability law. Current and future federal education secretaries would be banned from entering the state.
Finally, one way of creating a truly omnibus bill would be to exempt all North Carolinians from prosecution for violations of any federal law. This provision would be especially popular among certain former political officeholders and a few of their close friends.
Of course, this approach might create a few unforeseen problems. After all, the last time North Carolina told the feds to go jump in a lake, some fellow named Sherman burned and pillaged his way across the state.
Scott Mooneyham writes about North Carolina government and politics for the Capitol Press Association.
