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| Broad Channel hosting participation in Nation Wide Rally Protesting "Town Killer" Flood Insurance Hikes Saturday 9/28/2013 12 noon - American Legion Hall |
Earlier today, we participated in a 45 minute conference call sponsored by the Coalition for Sustainable Flood Insurance (CFSI) currently consisting of 16 states throughout the nation led by the Greater New Orleans Inc. Regional Economic Development organization (GNO) hosted by Ms. Caitlin Benri.
Summary of Conference Call
1. Legislative Update:
Congress returns to session this Monday, September 9, 2013; however no movement on any pending bills with amendments regarding the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 is expected until sometime in November or December because of the pendency of congressional debate and hearings pertaining to the President's request for Congress to approve a military strike on Syria.
A senate hearing with FEMA is scheduled for September 18, 2013 with the Senate Banking Committee and a separate house hearing at a date to be decided in October. These hearings will not affect legislation but are simply a means of getting our message out and educating members of congress and people throughout the country regarding the pending disaster resulting from astronomical flood insurance rate increases.
At these hearings FEMA will be asked to specifically respond to the following questions:
1. Will the administration be willing to delay unworkable parts of Biggert-Waters? There was no forecast before of not just rate increases but completely catastrophic unaffordable rate increases. We now know that parts of the legislation are unworkable.
2. Will FEMA not release any new maps until it gets the process for such mapping absolutely right and will the recommit to engage with local jurisdictions to get it right?
3. We need real leadership on this issue. Will they join us in proposing specific fixes to the Biggert-Waters Act, especially the affordability issue. Thus far the administration has been deafeningly silent on this matter.
Basically what these hearings intend to achieve is two-fold....
1. Obtain a 1 year delay in the implemenation of Biggert-Waters insurance increases, and
2. Use the interim year period to obtain the required legislative fixes to this legislation regarding affordability issue of premiums.
The question arose as to whether the provisions of Biggert-Waters will take place on October 1, 2013 as stipulated by this legislation while all these hearings and other actions are taking place? The basic answer was that there is nothing to stop implementation of this law however there exists substantial problems with this act, including the fact that the affordability study mandated by Biggert-Waters is some 278 days late.
If the President could delay implementation of certain aspects of his Affordable Care Act for one year while problems with that legislation is worked out, there is no reason why Congress cold not afford the same courtesy to us in the matter of Biggert-Waters.
2. Publication of new NFIP Insurance Rates:
This past Wednesday, FEMA and the NFIP for the first time published and made public their Specifiic Rate Guidelines Package for new premiums mandated as a result of Biggert-Waters.
Upon examination of these new rates, even some of those representatives who voted for this bill were taken aback at the enormity of some of these increases stating that they were much higher than they were originally led to believe prior to signing the bill into law.
Upon examination of the new rates, it became clear that this bill was not thought through and, in some cases, NFIP's data is mathematically flawed and encumbered with unexplained disparities.
If left unchecked, people are going to lose their houses and property values and local economies will tank.
Real estate appraisers stated that the problem is "astronomical" to the point they don't even want to think about it.
FEMA has claimed that only a small subset of homeowners will be affected by the largest increases mandated by Biggert-Waters but FEMA's claim is not backed up by real numbers indicating exactly what the actual impact will be, either locally or nationwide.
3. Closing:
The bottom line is that Congress can (and must) amend the Biggert-Waters Act....
Upon examination of these new rates, even some of those representatives who voted for this bill were taken aback at the enormity of some of these increases stating that they were much higher than they were originally led to believe prior to signing the bill into law.
Upon examination of the new rates, it became clear that this bill was not thought through and, in some cases, NFIP's data is mathematically flawed and encumbered with unexplained disparities.
If left unchecked, people are going to lose their houses and property values and local economies will tank.
Real estate appraisers stated that the problem is "astronomical" to the point they don't even want to think about it.
FEMA has claimed that only a small subset of homeowners will be affected by the largest increases mandated by Biggert-Waters but FEMA's claim is not backed up by real numbers indicating exactly what the actual impact will be, either locally or nationwide.
3. Closing:
The bottom line is that Congress can (and must) amend the Biggert-Waters Act....
to reinstate grandfathering of properties (not policies) that were built to code, have maintained insurance, have not repeatedly flooded, etc.,
to reflect an economically reasonable and slower increases in rates to actuarial rates.
There will be a follow up conference call next week to follow up on these and other issues and we will post the results of that call at that time.
A closing note to our neighbors in Howard Beach, Rockaway, Belle Harbor, Roxbury, Neponsit, Breezy Point, please make every attempt to attend the Stop FEMA Now rally on Saturday, September 28th at noon at the American Legion Hall on Cross Bay Boulevard in Broad Channel. There is strength in numbers and a big turnout for this event would certainly bolster the gravitas of our representatives when dealing with FEMA to address this issue. This affects all of us!
A closing note to our neighbors in Howard Beach, Rockaway, Belle Harbor, Roxbury, Neponsit, Breezy Point, please make every attempt to attend the Stop FEMA Now rally on Saturday, September 28th at noon at the American Legion Hall on Cross Bay Boulevard in Broad Channel. There is strength in numbers and a big turnout for this event would certainly bolster the gravitas of our representatives when dealing with FEMA to address this issue. This affects all of us!
Peter,
ReplyDeleteThank you for all the hard work you are putting into this effort.
WE ALL APPRECIATE IT!
George Kasimos