[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 112 (Monday, July 8, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4221-S4222]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                    National Flood Insurance Program

  Mr. CASSIDY. Madam President, I happen to know you are from 
Mississippi, and so as I speak about flood insurance, I suspect there 
are people in Mississippi whom you know or, perhaps, are related to who 
can relate to that which I describe.
  I am speaking specifically about the uncertainty felt by those who 
rely upon flood insurance as we enter hurricane season. Unfortunately 
and tragically, we actually have a real, live example of this as 
Hurricane Beryl has hit an area that was devastated by Harvey just a 
few years ago. And anyone along that gulf coast who is dependent upon 
flood insurance to rebuild--and their premiums just rose--have now been 
hit by Beryl, and they can anticipate their premiums rising once more.
  A program that is supposed to give security, instead, is creating 
anxiety. It isn't just the people who flood because some people who 
don't flood and who have never flooded will see their premiums rise as 
well. Why? It is because of the way that this program is being 
implemented.
  Let me say that Louisiana stands with Mississippi; Louisiana stands 
with Texas; and we stand with all parts of the Nation that will suffer 
under the way that this program is being implemented.
  So let me put up my first floor chart. We have the National Flood 
Insurance Program--or NFIP, as we call it--as a safety net for 
homeowners after a storm. It protects them from being financially wiped 
out by a hurricane or any other act of flooding. But this year is 
different from past years for two reasons. First, the National Weather 
Service predicts that 2024 will see above-normal hurricane activity in 
the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. Second, there is much more uncertainty 
about--and this is the key thing--whether NFIP will remain affordable 
due to FEMA's new risk assessment system called Risk Rating 2.0. For 
most people, the short answer is no--no that it will remain affordable.
  But this is not the issue just for Louisiana. It affects Mississippi. 
It affects Texas. It affects all coasts and anyplace where there is a 
river or a stream. Anyplace there is water, there is a risk of 
flooding.
  The National Flood Insurance Program covers 4.7 million policies 
across the country. And so those 4.7 million Americans rely upon NFIP 
to insure their homes and businesses, to keep their family safe. And we 
have seen flooding in States that you typically don't think of when you 
say ``flooding.'' Virginia, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, 
New York, New Jersey, Texas, Pennsylvania, California, Mississippi, and 
Alabama are all States that have had more than $1 billion in NFIP 
claims since 1978. Again, these States, over $1 billion in claims since 
1978.
  And those are just the States hardest hit, those in the dark. These 
lighter colored States have all been affected as well. Now, maybe not a 
billion, but if you are the family whose home has been washed away, it 
has affected you in one of the most profound ways.
  I will also point out that this is not a rich man's program. If you 
look in these communities, like in Pennsylvania, oftentimes that is 
called riverine flooding. And folks who are less well-off tend to have 
the older homes in the bottom of the valley. When the flooding goes 
through and rips up their home, they have fewer financial resources by 
which to rebuild. So the kind of charge that this only protects luxury 
homes on a beach--totally false. This is for middle-income families, 
working families, and poor families, allowing them to have the security 
that they can rebuild after a tragic event.
  In the past 3 years, we have seen seven major flooding events across 
the country, each costing more than $1 billion. In 2021, Louisiana saw 
flash flooding affecting thousands of homes. California, the State the 
Presiding Officer

[[Page S4222]]

now represents, has had two major floods--in January 2021 and the 
winter of 2023. Kentucky and Missouri both saw major flooding in July 
2022 and Florida, in April 2023. Vermont, New York, Wisconsin, 
Minnesota, and Illinois were each hit in July 2023. In December 2023, 
we saw flooding along the east coast States from Florida to Maine. 
Remember, these are just the floods that caused over $1 billion in 
damage.
  When we consider, once again, who lives in these areas most affected, 
we see why we need to keep the NFIP affordable for working families. 
Sixty-two percent of all NFIP policies are in parishes and counties 
where the median household income is below the national average of 
about $54,000 a year. Once more, these are not billionaires' beach 
homes.
  Hard-working people are uncertain whether they will be able to stay 
in their homes because of a decision made by a bureaucracy with zero 
input from Congress. Now we are seeing the consequences of that 
decision, with an estimated 900,000 people--one-fifth of all policies--
dropping coverage because it is unaffordable. When that happens, the 
pool of policyholders shrinks, and the program enters what is called an 
actuarial death spiral. That is where the risk is put on fewer people, 
which raises the premiums even more, which make those who are, 
relatively speaking, least at risk drop their policies, which 
concentrates it more--once more, a death spiral, setting up the program 
for collapse.
  Congress needs to do something before it is too late. First, we need 
to step back and ask how we got into this situation. Why did FEMA 
implement Risk Rating 2.0? Why inject this much uncertainty into the 
system? Congress never passed a bill requiring that FEMA implement 
this.
  President Biden could have stopped it with the stroke of a pen. We 
have done it in the past. In 2019, my office worked with the Trump 
administration to successfully delay implementation because of concerns 
over the methodology of how FEMA was calculating rates. This time, even 
though the concerns remain, the Biden administration would not work 
with us.
  Since the Biden administration is allowing this to happen, Congress 
must step in. My team has worked on a bipartisan solution that will 
roll back Risk Rating 2.0 and make flood insurance affordable and 
accountable again.
  Let me say to my colleagues: Let's talk about it. Let's have a 
conversation. Every single Member of this body has constituents who 
rely on the National Flood Insurance Program. We owe it to them to find 
a solution to a system that isn't working for Americans who were 
promised a safety net in case of a flood. Let's get to work.