Representative Judy Biggert (R-IL) offered a motion to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 5740, the National Flood Insurance Program Extension Act, which would take a much-needed step toward reforming the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and protecting sensitive environmental habitats. While the existing NFIP provides flood insurance at a significantly discounted rate-thereby creating a market incentive that has encouraged development and destruction of floodplains-H.R. 5740 would remedy this by increasing current rates to market-based levels. The bill would also create a $90 million per year mitigation fund to help relocate communities out of floodplains and create a Technical Mapping Advisory Council that would, among other things, ensure that changing weather and altered hydrology are included in the assessment of risk. On May 17, the House - by a vote of 402-18 - reached the two-thirds majority necessary to suspend the rules and approve H.R. 5740 (House roll call vote 262). YES IS THE PRO-ENVIRONMENT VOTE. H.R. 5740 became law, but it did so only as an extension of the then-current flood insurance program and did not contain significant reforms. A slightly altered version of the positive flood insurance reform provisions offered in the Biggert motion was attached to the compromise transportation bill-H.R. 4348, MAP-21-which President Obama signed into law on July 6.