When Congress returns from its monthlong August recess, it will only have three legislative weeks to pass a bill to reauthorize the National Flood Insurance Program responsible for nearly 5 million policies-in-force nationwide.

The approach legislators take to the program will face close public scrutiny, as southeastern Texas and parts of Louisiana face devastating flooding from Hurricane Harvey.

"It's always bothersome to us that the point at which attention is drawn to it is when there is a real human catastrophe ongoing," Ian Adams, associate vice president of state affairs at Washington, D.C.-based think tank R Street Institute, said in an interview. "It's so darn frustrating to watch the inevitable happen again and again."

Of the NFIP's 5 million policies, almost 600,000 are in Texas and nearly 476,000 policies have been affected in the state by Harvey, representing about 9.5% of policies-in-force nationwide.

The House Financial Services Committee passed a series of federal flood insurance bills but has yet to bring them to the full House of Representatives for a vote.

The House bills include requirements for the program to offload more financial risk by utilizing reinsurance, as well as a provision that limits federal flood insurance funds from being spent on properties flooded multiple times.

"I hope the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey is a wakeup call to Washington when it comes to flood insurance," House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, said in a statement to S&P Global Market Intelligence. "We need a National Flood Insurance Program that is stable, sustainable and affordable."

The program, managed and administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has incurred $24.6 billion of debt accumulated from claims of other catastrophic flood events like Katrina and Sandy.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and ranking member of the committee tasked with reauthorizing the program in the House, has long argued that the accumulated debt should be forgiven, as it was in the 1980s to stabilize and make the program solvent.

"When Congress returns to session in September we must pass a bipartisan reauthorization of the NFIP," Waters said in a statement. "This disaster yet again makes clear that Americans need access to affordable flood insurance."

Chad Berginnis, executive director of the Association of State Floodplain Managers, said in an interview that the NFIP was never supposed to handle large-scale catastrophic events; had Congress forgiven the debt incurred from Katrina, the program would have been prepared to manage Hurricane Sandy and now, Hurricane Harvey, he argued.

In the Senate, although several proposals have been introduced, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, has yet to consider any bills in a committee markup to send to the Senate floor for debate and vote.

Given the projected impact of Harvey on the NFIP, as well as a prolonged recovery period expected for the affected areas, reauthorizing the program will be at the forefront of legislators' minds, R Street Institute's Adams said.

He believes the most likely scenario for an NFIP reauthorization is a short-term extension of the program to give lawmakers more time to slog through the legislative process.

"The larger, longer-term policy overhaul that both sides are wanting to see will likely take a backseat to the need to just have the program remain in place and funded," Adams said.

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