[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 157 (Monday, September 24, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6267-S6268]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            NATIONAL FLOOD INSURANCE PROGRAM REAUTHORIZATION

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I begin my remarks today by offering my 
heartfelt sympathy to those in North Carolina, South Carolina, and 
Virginia who were battered by Hurricane Florence over the past several 
weeks and who are still feeling the aftermath of that storm. 
Unfortunately, people in Louisiana know more than a little bit about 
the damage to life and property that these natural disasters can do.
  The road to recovery may be long, but we have your back. That is the 
message that I want to give to our fellow Americans who were in the 
path of Hurricane Florence. Don't give up. You are going to want to. 
Don't. Failure is not falling down. Failure is not getting back up.
  Today, I wish to talk a little bit about the National Flood Insurance 
Program. Weathering a hurricane is difficult enough without the added 
burden of having to do it without insurance. Our National Flood 
Insurance Program isn't doing its job if it is so expensive that people 
can't afford to buy it.
  Unfortunately, that is precisely the case for many of our people in 
North and South Carolina. In spite of a robust economy--4 million new 
jobs in 20 months and 4.1 percent in gross domestic product growth--and 
in spite of a booming population in our country, fewer people in the 
Carolinas can afford to insure their property today than in the year 
2013. We should be ashamed of that.
  Experts estimate that fewer than 10 percent of the households 
affected by Hurricane Florence have flood insurance at all. So 90 
percent do not. Making matters worse, in North Carolina today there are 
3.6 percent fewer NFIP policies in place than there were in 2013. Over 
that same period of time, North Carolina's population has increased by 
620,000 people.
  South Carolina tells a similar story. Today, there are 1.2 percent 
fewer policies than in 2013, despite South Carolina having 350,000 more 
people. This is the exact same story--the exact same story--that we saw 
in Texas last year, where 80 percent of homeowners in the eight hardest 
hit counties had absolutely no flood insurance. That is four out of 
every five people.
  Why don't people have flood insurance? There are a variety of 
reasons, but because the costs are out of control and middle-class 
families have little choice but to just roll the dice is the main 
reason. Why is that? Because Congress keeps playing games, and people 
don't have faith that the NFIP will be around to pay off. It is also 
because some people want to get a sound bite more than they want to 
help ordinary Americans protect one of their most valuable 
possessions--and, in most cases, their most valuable possession--their 
home. If those people want to reform the program because they want to 
save the government money, which is a laudable goal--and some do--they 
are going about it the wrong way.
  The reality is that the National Flood Insurance Program is the only 
place--the only place--where people can turn to insure their home and 
their belongings.
  Now, 98.5 percent of all NFIP policies are in counties or parishes 
with a median household income below $100,000. So this argument we 
often hear that the National Flood Insurance Program is just a subsidy 
for wealthy people and their beach homes is nonsense. It is nonsense on 
a stick. And 62 percent of all of the people enrolled in the NFIP 
program are in counties or parishes with a median household income 
below the national average of $53,889. Last year, many folks saw the 
premiums for their homes and businesses increase between 8 and 25 
percent.
  Floods are the most common and, unfortunately, the most costly 
natural disaster. If your home takes on water, your homeowner's 
insurance is not going to help you. Let me say that again. If your home 
floods and you have homeowner's insurance, you will not be covered. 
Homeowner's insurance does not cover the cost of a flood. If you don't 
have insurance, FEMA's disaster dollars aren't going to foot the bill 
for a full recovery. They aren't.
  Even if you are eligible for Federal disaster assistance--for 
example, a

[[Page S6268]]

loan or a grant--it will be years before you will see those funds. What 
are flood victims supposed to do in the meantime? They can't just 
simply sit on an empty lot and wait. Life goes on.
  Hurricane Florence is just one in a long line of storms that have 
devastated Americans families. I am not just talking about massive 
hurricanes such as Katrina, Rita, and Sandy. Unnamed floods in the 
spring and summer of 2016 ravaged 56 of the 64 parishes or counties in 
my State. In parts of my State in 2016, we had folks who endured 20 
inches of rain in 2 days. I don't care if you live on Pikes Peak. If 
you get 20 inches of rain in 2 days, you are going to flood, even if 
you are not near a body of water. That is just a fact.
  In the wake of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria last year, I 
thought my colleagues might have seen the light and might have come to 
the table to discuss a long-term sustainable and reasonable bill to 
reform the NFIP, but, unfortunately, that couldn't be further from 
reality.
  Congress has not only refused to debate comprehensive National Flood 
Insurance Program reform, but the program nearly lapsed. Congress has 
had well over a year to lay out a plan. Yet it still refuses to do so 
because one or two Members want to hold up progress. Unfortunately, it 
is ordinary people like the good people of North Carolina, South 
Carolina, Virginia, Louisiana, and Texas who are feeling the pain of 
those politics.
  Recovering from a natural disaster is more than just putting up 
drywall. It is about communities coming back safer, stronger, and 
better prepared. The NFIP is an indispensable part of that effort to 
rebuild, but a flood insurance program isn't useful if it is too 
complicated to understand or if it allows bad actors to take from hard-
working families.
  We need rules for the flood insurance program that make sense. We 
need government websites that a normal person can navigate. We need 
quicker decisions by bureaucrats, and a faster process to get disaster 
dollars to the people who need them. Most importantly, though, people 
need to be able to afford the flood insurance.
  I understand the National Flood Insurance Program is running a 
deficit. As you can see, we have had an extraordinary number of storms, 
and I understand that it needs to be put back into sound, fiscal shape. 
But raising the price of the product so high so that people can't 
afford the insurance is not going to achieve that. It is going to 
undermine the entire purpose of the flood insurance program.
  I suggest that what we have to do is to strike a balance between 
fiscal stability and longevity of the program and affordability for the 
people who are supposed to be served by it. We have no choice but to 
get the program fiscally stable, but also we have no choice but to get 
premiums under control, and reform is the only path forward. The status 
quo is not working.
  When Congress established the NFIP, we made a promise. We promised 5 
million Americans--that is how many policyholders we have--including 
half a million people in my State and 350,000 people in North and South 
Carolina, that we would be there to help should disaster strike, and it 
is high time that the Congress show people that we meant it.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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