Clarity Act Passes House of Representatives

It’s an exciting day for supporters of the Clarity Act. They are one step closer to seeing the bill become law after it passed through the House Wednesday.

Supporters of the Clarity Act are celebrating. The insurance bill has passed through the Mississippi House of Representatives. R.Lee Flowers, Gulfport City Council member, says, "This is a great step. It’s not the final step. We’ve had many, many efforts since Hurricane Katrina to do things similar to this, but this one actually has momentum."

A great milestone for Clarity Act advocates, but they’re still keeping their fingers crossed as the bill moves to the Senate. Flowers also says, "We have spoken with the Governor. He is supportive of this measure and we’re very assured that he will sign it into law once it passes the legislature."

While the bill won’t actually change insurance rates, it will help answer some questions. Paulette Mowbray, an advocate of the Clarity Act, says, "It’s going to give us the data that we need to compare our experience here in Mississippi with wind insurance premiums along with our sister states, Alabama to our east, and of course Louisiana to our west, because they have both passed clarity laws as well."

At first, some had fears the bill would drive the insurance industry out of Mississippi, but bill supporters say if insurance companies were going to leave, they already would have done so. Mowbray also says, "There were some fears that possibly the insurance industry would back out of our state because of being asked to provide this information, but they have already been required to provide this information to the states of Alabama and Louisiana. They have a law like this very similar in Texas."

Moving forward, Mowbray and others would like to see more insurance options to allow for more growth on the Coast.