"I didn't know!"
I am continually amazed that, with Super Storm Sandy almost one year behind us, many people I speak to still have no idea of what I am talking about when I mention the Biggert-Waters Act.
These are the same people who never miss a televised Giants (or Jets) game and can rattle off the names on the their teams' roster accompanied by individual player and team statistics.
God forgive them, they know who "Honey Boo-Boo" is.
They can speak intelligently about the pros and cons of Obama Care.
They have solid opinions regarding Mayor Bloomberg's ban on 16 ounce soft drinks.
But when I mention "Biggert-Waters" I am often greeted with "Huh?" - "never heard of it..." - "...are you speaking about a law firm?"
When I attempt to explain to these individuals that the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 was federal legislation passed without any public announcement or warning by our elected representatives back in 2012, well before Sandy, and that this law could cause their flood insurance premiums to rise by well over 1000 percent, suddenly their response becomes "WHAT?"
Once I have their attention, their next reaction is almost always the same..."What are our politicians doing about this?"
My response to the above is always the same....most of our Senators and Congressman state that they "didn't know about the unintended consequences of this law."
I always follow up by quoting Maxine Waters, a co-author of this law, who stated "As one of the primary authors of the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act...I can state that it was never the intent of Congress to impose these type of punitive and unaffordable flood insurance premium rates ..."
This is the woman who wrote the law, yet she readily admits she had no idea of the problems she has caused in doing so!
When you combine an citizenry's attitude of non-involvement with a politician's total non-interest and involvement towards legislation that directly impacts his or her constituents, you are left with a recipe for disaster!
How does such a damaging piece of legislation slip through the cracks, get attached to a larger bill, and ultimately passed without anyone really examining the ramifications of same.
It is a sad state affairs that, in this day and age, a politician's response to this issue that "Oops...I didn't know!"
I know for a fact that both Congressman and Senators have staff trained to review pending legislation to brief their boss on how that particular will affect his or her constituents. I spoke with a friend who works for a Senator (in a state other than New York) and she advised me that, on the average, a Congressman has a staff of 15 employees and a Senator has some 35!
Then there are the very well paid lobbyists retained by a myriad a special interests groups whose job it is to keep an eye on legislation that can help, hurt or otherwise affect their groups.
That means that, at a minimum, in addition to our local area elected representatives, there were over two hundred individuals with full access to this legislation.
Why was nothing known about this nightmare until Dan Mundy Jr. from the Broad Channel Civic Association and Kevin Boyle, editor of the WAVE, yanked the Biggert-Waters fire alarm that this issue finally came to light.
So, how will this all turn out?
Politically there are two obvious sides to this issue.
Senators and Congressman from flood prone areas are now starting to work towards addressing the exorbitant rate hikes that are mandated by this flawed legislation as they now very clearly see the dangers of allowing this law to proceed unchecked.
Then there are those Congressmen and Senators who favor the Biggert-Waters Law as it stands as a means of "guaranteeing" the financial viability of the National Flood Insurance Program.
My initial (and probably simplistic) thought on addressing this problem would be to delay the rate increases of the law for several years or at least until the affordability study mandated by Biggert-Waters is completed by FEMA and submitted for public review, verification and comment. If we are to have any hope of this resolution becoming a possibility, all of us must become thoroughly familiar with this issue and continually communicate our desire for such change to this law to our local, state and federal representatives.
More importantly, our elected representatives must start paying attention so that they never have to respond to an inequity of this magnitude again in the future by saying "Oops...I didn't know!"
The problem is that the bills are tooooo big. Different issues should not be bundled together. We shouldn't have to wait to see what is included until after it has passed, e.g., Obamacare. It makes you wonder how many pieces of legislation have been voted on by people who have no clue what is inside the bills.
ReplyDelete"Our elected officials" support whatever gets them votes. In NYC it is the people on a program that rule. They are the majority. They also get more than 16 ounce sodas with their programs.....
ReplyDeletePoliticians get elected and then think their prime directive is to stay in office, which usually means raising money for the next election, from well-monied sources like lobbyists. They feel little to no accountability to the citizenry who voted for them since tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars from one source can result in countless voteS, not just one vote. The only way we stand a chance is to speak up every time and to stay organized. As citizens, when we are well informed and speak well to the issue, pols perk up and listen, and so will the media. We need to stay engaged and join together to hold them all responsible. Don't fall into the false belief that one person can't make a difference because it took one person to found Stop FEMA Now, one person heading a civic, one person as the editor for a local paper to help start a movement. We need to keep the heat on.
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