[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 123 (Monday, July 29, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S5539]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                    National Flood Insurance Program

  Madam President, the National Flood Insurance Program, or NFIP, was 
created to protect Americans and their families. It covers 4.7 million 
American homes. But NFIP fails to serve that core function when it 
becomes too expensive to afford.
  This is my poster: Make flood insurance affordable.
  FEMA's new risk assessment, Risk Rating 2.0, has blindsided 
homeowners with unprecedented spikes in their insurance premiums, and 
it was never passed by Congress.
  I speak to constituents constantly about flood insurance. A few month 
ago, I shared several stories that my team and I have heard from people 
in Louisiana about the issue. And their stories matter. They are the 
stories of Americans struggling to get by, and they deserve to be 
heard. So I am back to share a couple more.
  One resident in New Orleans, nearing retirement, told us she was 
struggling to keep up with rising premiums because they no longer allow 
her home to be grandfathered into the program. Her house was built in 
1987, up to the standards under the flood map at the time. She did 
everything right.
  Her home flooded during Katrina, like so many did, but, again, it was 
saved from skyrocketing premiums until Risk Rating 2.0. And it is 
important to note that the flooding during Katrina was due to the 
failure of federally designed and built flood walls. So she is being 
blamed for the Army Corps of Engineers' failure, and, therefore, now 
she has got skyrocketing premiums.
  She tells us that her future premiums will eventually rise to over 
$8,000. Her hazard insurance is almost $12,000 and growing each year. 
She wrote:

       There is no way I will be able to retire and afford the 
     premiums. I can hardly pay them now. There is no way I will 
     be able to retire.

  Her story is one that is shared by many homeowners in our State. 
There is another woman in the city of Central, LA, just outside of 
Baton Rouge, an area that doesn't often flood. As she put it, in order 
for her house to flood, the whole city of Central would need to be 
under water.
  But when Risk Rating 2.0 hit, she learned her premiums would 
quadruple if she opted for the coverage she wanted. So, instead, she 
dropped coverage altogether.
  Now that is the problem with blindsiding people with higher premiums. 
If they don't flood and they cannot afford insurance, they drop their 
coverage. When that happens, the pool of policyholders shrinks, and the 
risk is put on fewer and fewer policyholders, which raises their 
premiums even more, and you enter what is called an actuarial death 
spiral.
  FEMA itself forecasted that over 20 percent of stakeholders would 
leave the program within 10 years with these increased premiums. We are 
setting the program up for collapse.
  And, by the way, these are not wealthy people. The wealthy are like a 
small minority of those affected. There is a stereotype that this is 
for wealthy people with their camps at the beach. No, this program is 
for working and middle-income Americans, the kind of folks who wake up 
every day, go to the refinery, make the gasoline and the jet fuel that 
help us get here, and do the work that literally powers our economy. 
And they are the ones that are affected.
  Madam President, 62 percent of all NFIP policies are in parishes and 
counties where the median household income is below the national 
average of about $54,000. These are hard-working families, not 
millionaires' beach homes.
  And it is not just Louisiana families getting hit. We have seen 
flooding in States that don't typically make you think of flooding.
  So if it is the dark yellow, it is a State that has had over a 
billion dollars in claims. That includes the President of the Senate's 
home State of California, her native State of Mississippi, and all of 
these other beach States, including a non-beach State, which would be 
the State of Missouri.
  So the yellow which is not as dark is, again, places which have had 
over $50 million in NFIP claims. So you see this is a pervasive 
problem.
  This is a national program. Forty-four States have had over $50 
million in total NFIP claims, and every single State has had at least 
$5 million in claims.
  You may be surprised to hear that Ruidoso, NM, a small village in 
South Central New Mexico, has faced 13 flash flood emergencies since 
June 19 of this year due to runoff from heavy rain.
  On July 17, homeowners in Nashville, IL, were devastated when the 
town's dam flooded and caused damages to dozens of homes.
  On May 24, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte issued an executive order 
to declare a statewide disaster in response to recent flooding in 
Northern and Central Montana.
  Residents of Appleton, WI, faced widespread damage from a flash flood 
earlier this year.
  New Mexico, Illinois, Montana, Wisconsin--not places you typically 
think of when you think of flooding. Again, it is a national issue, not 
just a coastal issue.
  Now, let me say to my colleagues who represent those States and all 
of my colleagues that come to talk to me about it: Let's have a 
conversation. Every single Member of this body has constituents who 
depend upon the National Flood Insurance Program. My team is working on 
a bipartisan solution that will roll back Risk Rating 2.0 and make 
flood insurance affordable and accountable again. Let's find a way 
forward.