[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 149 (Wednesday, October 23, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1554-E1555]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




INTRODUCTION OF LEGISLATION TO REQUIRE THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE FEDERAL 
 EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY TO ALLOW FOR MONTHLY INSTALLMENT PAYMENTS 
FOR FLOOD INSURANCE UNDER THE NATIONAL FLOOD INSURANCE ACT OF 1968, TO 
CAP THE ANNUAL COST OF FLOOD INSURANCE UNDER THAT ACT, TO PROVIDE FOR A 
TEN-YEAR PHASE-IN OF PREMIUM INCREASES RESULTING FROM THE ENACTMENT OF 
 THE BIGGERT-WATERS FLOOD INSURANCE REFORM ACT OF 2012, AND FOR OTHER 
                                PURPOSES

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                         HON. GUS M. BILIRAKIS

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, October 23, 2013

  Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, today I introduced the Homeowners Flood 
Insurance Relief Act of 2013. This legislation seeks to ensure the 
National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) remains affordable for 
homeowners and sustainable for taxpayers. Homeowners across the country 
face significantly increased rates as a result of reforms made to 
address the solvency of the program in 2012. Congress reformed the NFIP 
in 2012 as part of the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 
2012. These reforms required premiums to reflect the cost of coverage 
to ensure the program was solvent, but rates are increasing so quickly 
that the reforms may be counterproductive. As the Tampa Tribune 
recently noted, ``For properties in low-lying areas, especially near 
the coast, annual rates may double or go up tenfold, depending on base 
flood elevation, exceeding $20,000 a year in some cases.'' Congress did 
not intend to create such significant increases, and they have the 
potential to harm the program by limiting program participation and 
freezing the already fragile housing market. The bill would cap a 
homeowner's premiums to being no more than the appraised value of the 
structure over the course of a thirty-year mortgage. It also phases-in 
rate increases over ten years and would allow homeowners to pay 
premiums on a monthly basis, rather than an annual lump sum. These 
commonsense changes will ensure that the homeowners stay in the program 
and any increased premiums do not harm the housing market's recovery. 
This legislation continues the intent of the NFIP is to protect 
homeowners from devastating floods while ensuring the program is able 
to cover its costs. I look forward to working with my colleagues to 
move this legislation through Congress.

                        [From the Tampa Tribune]

     Flood Insurance Rate Hikes Threaten `Old Florida' Communities

                          (By Josh Boatwright)

       Pass-a-Grille.--Many of the beach cottages, motels and 
     storefronts on this barrier island have been here nearly 100 
     years.
        They've endured a series of tropical storms but avoided a 
     direct hit.
        While dozens have been razed in recent decades, some 
     replaced by palatial beach homes, Pass-A-Grille's character 
     as a quiet Gulf Coast village has essentially endured.
        What residents and merchants fear may wipe out their 
     beloved historic district isn't a catastrophic flood--it's 
     rising flood insurance costs.
        ``There aren't too many places like this in Florida 
     anymore. We've got all these McMansions and condos,'' said 
     Bill Thompson, a member of the St. Pete Beach Historic 
     Preservation Board.
        ``If it [flood insurance reform] goes into effect, we're 
     going to lose our historic properties in Pass-A-Grille. 
     There's just no two ways about it.''
        For coastal towns that have built a community, and tourism 
     economy, around offering visitors an authentic ``Old 
     Florida'' experience, unaffordable flood insurance rates 
     could drive shopkeepers out of business and retirees on fixed 
     incomes out of their homes.
        Only 20 percent of all policies provided by the National 
     Flood Insurance Program nationwide will see their premiums 
     rise this year as a result of the Biggert-Waters Flood 
     Insurance Reform Act. The changes are set to take effect 
     Tuesday, unless Congress acts to stop or delay that from 
     happening.
        But as the government removes grandfathered rates for 
     thousands of homes built before modern flood maps, owners of 
     historic properties face a dilemma: raise their floor height 
     above base flood elevation or pay exorbitant premiums.
        There's another option Pass-A-Grille residents especially 
     fear, and that's tearing down the old bungalows and replacing 
     them with multimillion-dollar homes built to modern flood 
     standards.
        Former St. Pete Beach city commissioner Bev Jackson 
     envisions rows of uniform two- and three-story homes raised 
     above garages such as the Florida Panhandle community that 
     became famous for its uniformity as a set for the 1998 film 
     ``The Truman Show.''
        ``We're going to be Seaside,'' Jackson said.
        The full impact of the federal flood insurance reform 
     still remains foggy for many historic districts along 
     Florida's coast.
        In St. Augustine, the oldest European settlement in the 
     United States, shops, restaurants and cathedrals built of 
     wood and coquina shell flood frequently when big storms sweep 
     over the nearby Matanzas River.

[[Page E1555]]

        Rather than raise these aging structures above flood 
     elevation, many property owners are encouraged to take other 
     measures, such as installing dams on their doorways to keep 
     water out, city Planning Director Mark Knight said.
        The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which runs the 
     flood insurance program, allows historic districts to avoid 
     regulations meant to make property owners either raise their 
     building heights or rebuild according to current code.
        Improvements that increase a property's value by 50 
     percent or more generally trigger those requirements, but 
     cities can make historic buildings exempt from the rule, as 
     long as nothing is done to compromise their historic 
     characters.
        Those rules will still apply under Biggert-Waters, but 
     historic properties won't be exempt from the same rate hikes 
     facing all other older homes.
        For properties in low-lying areas, especially near the 
     coast, annual rates may double or go up tenfold, depending on 
     base flood elevation, exceeding $20,000 a year in some cases.
        Because flood coverage is required only for holders of 
     federally backed mortgages, Carl Hollenback says he'll drop 
     his policy on the Seahorse Restaurant in Pass-A-Grille if 
     rates climb as expected under the new law.
        ``I'll take my chances,'' said Hollenback, who has paid 
     off his mortgage on the restaurant.
        The Seahorse has operated as a restaurant for 75 years at 
     the corner of Eighth Avenue and Pass-A-Grille Way, directly 
     across the street from the Intracoastal Waterway.
        In Hollenback's 35 years of ownership, the restaurant has 
     flooded 15 times, being located at one of the lowest points 
     on a narrow stretch of land between the Gulf of Mexico and 
     the intracoastal.
        Each time, he wipes down the tile floor, lets the building 
     air out and reopens. He filed one claim when a commercial 
     fryer he had just bought for $4,500 was ruined; he got back 
     $2,400.
        Many residents are galled by what they see as the 
     unfairness of the national flood program, which has collected 
     about $16 billion from Floridians in the past 35 years--four 
     times more than what they received back in claims.
        Amy Loughery, the longtime owner of the boutique store 
     Bamboozle on Eighth Avenue, says the government encouraged 
     communities such as hers to embrace preservation by becoming 
     part of the National Register of Historic Places. The new law 
     undermines that preservation goal, she said.
        ``Which is it? We encouraged all these homeowners to keep 
     their smaller properties, keep within the historic guidelines 
     of our community,'' said Loughery, who has served on the 
     city's preservation board.
        ``Only now we're going to say, oops, sorry; we're going to 
     rip that rug right out from under you.''
        Loughery leases her store, a 1930s-era building, and 
     doesn't yet know how much of an increase to expect in her 
     rent in the coming years.
        While state and federal grants are available to help 
     homeowners purchase and restore historic properties, there's 
     no assistance available to defray ongoing costs such as 
     maintenance and insurance, said Anne Peery, executive 
     director of the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation.
        The changes to the flood insurance law won't impact all 
     Florida towns equally, but preservationists such as Peery 
     worry it will cause more people to shy away from investing in 
     historic properties.
        The funky beach cottages in Florida's most famous 
     waterfront town, Key West, will largely be unaffected by 
     Biggert-Waters because most of them were built on high ground 
     and remain above base flood levels, said Diane Silvia, 
     preservation planner for Monroe County.
        What will become of the rickety wooden restaurants and 
     shops that have come to characterize Old Florida in towns 
     such as Cedar Key and Apalachicola isn't clear yet.
        City leaders in Apalachicola had sought to cap building 
     heights at about two stories to maintain the quaint character 
     of this waterfront town, which has buildings dating back to 
     the 1830s.
        That may be impractical, as most of the town is already 
     below base flood elevation and will need to rise to avoid 
     high premium costs, said Anita Grove of the Apalachicola Bay 
     Chamber of Commerce.
        ``It's going to take some time to absorb everything that's 
     happening,'' Grove said.
        Bruno Falkenstein has spent years studying FEMA's flood 
     program, which he blames for driving Pass-A-Grille property 
     owners to prefer new construction to restoration.
        As a former St. Pete Beach commissioner, Falkenstein urged 
     the city to adopt the exemption that allows owners to improve 
     historic buildings without bringing them up to flood code.
        His grandfather moved here after World War II on the 
     recommendation of a fellow soldier who told him that Pass-A-
     Grille was paradise.
        His family owns several properties, including the two-
     story Hurricane restaurant on Gulf Way.
        FEMA, he says, has long used a broad brush to create its 
     flood maps, ignoring the fact that few Pass-A-Grille homes 
     have sustained serious flood damage in the past 100 years.
        Flood premiums ought to be based on history. Most 
     properties in his community have clearly stood the test of 
     time, he said.
        ``When you start looking at the history and you start 
     saying to yourself `What did they do at the turn of the 
     century? Why was it that they built the homes like they did?' 
     '' said Falkenstein.
        ``The homes themselves, when they were originally built, 
     were elevated. It's almost like the old-timers knew the 
     height where the water was going to come.''

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