BATON ROUGE – Ironically, as the area dealt with torrential rain and street flooding this week, FEMA revealed it has stopped issuing new policies because of the federal government shutdown.

Industry reports also indicated renewals were not going through.

Bloomberg, a financial news agency, reported the issue is holding up home sales. Bankers and realtors also chastised the situation.

Politicians are using the opportunity to toss around political spin, too.

Bloomberg reported Thursday, Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Democratic Representative Maxine Waters demanded FEMA resume issuing politics since lawmakers previously passed an extension of the National Flood Insurance Program until May 31.

Forty-thousand home closings are in jeopardy, a leading real estate lobby told the financial report.

Governor John Bel Edwards also joined calls for changes:

“The real life consequences of the federal government shutdown continues to grow with each passing day,” said Edwards said in a prepared statement.

“Today, Louisiana is being inundated by torrential downpours which makes FEMA's decision to disallow the renewal or issuing of new policies through the National Flood Insurance Program a real concern to thousands of families in our state.  In addition, the Violence Against Women’s Act has lapsed and thousands of federal employees are spending the holidays without pay.”

“There are very real ramifications to this government shutdown, but there appears to be a lack of urgency in Washington to forge a compromise.”

The shutdown is in its 6th day.

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