WASHINGTON—The Obama administration announced Wednesday that it opposes legislation likely to receive a House vote on Thursday that would require the National Flood Insurance Program to offer windstorm as well as flood coverage.

In a formal statement of administration policy, the White House said that the Multiple Peril Insurance Act—H.R. 1264—would expand the government’s role in providing windstorm coverage that is “already readily available in the private sector.”

The statement said that adding windstorm coverage to the NFIP would “unnecessarily duplicate” existing insurance products and “could ‘crowd out’ such products where they are offered.”

The statement adds that “at a time when the NFIP is already facing serious challenges, the administration cannot support such an expansion.”

Expansion of the NFIP to include windstorm coverage is opposed by much of the insurance industry, which holds that the private market already provides sufficient coverage.

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