Sen. Landrieu pushes delegation letter seeking delay in flood insurance premium hikes

By Bruce Alpert, NOLA.com | Times-Picayune

September 9, 2013

Sen. Mary Landrieu has organized a letter urging House and Senate leaders to back a delay in flood insurance premium hikes.

WASHINGTON - Members of the Louisiana congressional delegation are asking the four bipartisan leaders of the House and Senate to include language in an omnibus spending bill to delay some increases in flood insurancepremiums resulting from "reform" legislation enacted one year ago.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., organized the letter and is seeking signatures Monday from fellow Louisiana members for distribution to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio; House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; along with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.; and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

The letter notes that the House already approved the amendment, as part of a homeland security spending bill, and the Senate Appropriations Committee included identical language in its homeland security measure,

But it appears that Congress won't be able to agree on separate spending bills, and instead will enact a catch-all bill covering spending for most, if not all, federal agencies for at least several months. That would be the norm for Congress in recent years with partisan gridlock making "regular order" on budget issues an unobtainable task.

"Last year, Congress passed the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act to reauthorize the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and to make it self-sustainable," reads the Louisiana delegation letter to the four leaders. "This legislation aims to make NFIP actuarially sound but it fails to make flood insurance accessible and affordable, leaving millions of policies holders in Louisiana and across the country in dire straits and facing exorbitant rate increases."

"Our delegation is united in our efforts to fix this law and find a way forward that will."

The letter said that homeowners and businesses that built to code "and played by the rules," now are facing increases that could hike their annual premiums from "a few hundred dollars per year to tens of thousands of dollars per year." Blamed are "irresponsible rate reforms" included in the Bigger-Waters.

Everyone in the Louisiana delegation voted for the bill, though the members said they never anticipated the magnitude of increases now being faced by some constituents mapped in "high-risk" flood zones. Even Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., one of the lead authors of the bill, said the large increases reported by some homeowners is well beyond anything she anticipated and supports efforts to delay implementation to give Congress a chance to fix the law.

Last week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said that homeowners in high risk areas that are four feet below flood elevation would face premiums of $9,500 a year, or $95,000 a year. It said that such homeowners should look at elevating their homes, though Louisiana lawmakers say the costs can often be prohibitive.

The temporary fix now championed by Louisiana lawmakers was sponsored by Reps.Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge; Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans, and Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, and Waters, among others. It would bar any 2014 funds from being used by FEMA to implement Section 207 of the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012, which ends grandfathered rates for people who, though no fault of their own, find themselves below "Base Flood Elevation."

Landrieu introduced identical language in the Senate, and added it to the homeland security bill approved by her Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee.