The US National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) could be shut down on Friday unless the Senate agrees to extend the program past Friday’s expiry date.

A decision for an interim program extension until November 18 remains in doubt, with senators unable to agree on the way forward for the program.

The NFIP is more than $US18 billion ($18.4 billion) in deficit and a revised NFIP bill has already passed through the US Congress. This would extend the government-backed insurance scheme for another five years and introduce reforms to improve its financial stability.