A $20 Billion Debt Hole Gets Deeper on Flood-Insurance Gridlock

U.S. taxpayers who spent billions of dollars after a trifecta of hurricanes last year are poised to do so again after a fix to the nation’s troubled flood insurance program remains stalled in Congress—and as a dangerous new storm barrels toward the southern Atlantic coast.

The program, administered through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is the primary source of flood insurance in the U.S., with about 5 million policy holders across the country. But it remains more than $20 billion in debt and some experts say it must be overhauled in an era of very powerful storms like Harvey and ...