[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 87 (Thursday, May 22, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3135-S3136]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RISK RATING 2.0
Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. President, I know you have a family legacy in
Florida. You will appreciate that along the gulf coast and certainly in
Louisiana, people in Louisiana are preparing for hurricanes.
I just had a meeting with the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury, and they
sent me some photos of some Lake Charles homes. I am saying this in the
context of a discussion about flood insurance and what has happened
that just seems irrational.
To reduce their risk of flooding and therefore their monthly flood
insurance premiums, people have paid to elevate their homes. It makes
sense. If you get floodwaters, it works. And it costs anywhere from
$25,000 to $40,000. If your foundation needs repair, there is another
$25,000 on top of that. If you have to fully replace your foundation,
that can be another $100,000. But if it lowers your flood insurance
premiums, it can be a worthwhile investment. You lift your homes, and
you may not flood.
Here is this home, a similar home. You can see, whereas the neighbors
are flooding in this one, an elevation like this prevents a flood, in
this picture. That home is not flooding. Their insurance premium should
go down.
But after spending tens of thousands of dollars to mitigate one's
risk of flooding, they are still seeing high insurance premiums. They
are getting the worst of both worlds. They had to pay to elevate their
home, successfully preventing flooding; despite that, they are having
to pay much higher insurance premiums.
Let's put up the chart of prices. Two properties. This is before they
elevated their home, after they elevated their home. At first, it
worked. They go from $12,000 a year to $758, from $4,500 to $751. This
is an investment which would lower the cost of flood insurance, saving
the National Flood Insurance Program money; therefore, it is worthwhile
to raise your home.
Now, however, under a new system called Risk Rating 2.0, it doesn't
matter. Here, they pay tens of thousands of dollars to elevate their
home, and under this new system, their premium is back up to $9,800 or
to $7,300--in this case, higher than it was before they elevated their
home. The percentage increase is about 1,200 percent. The percentage
increase here is almost 900 percent. It does not make sense.
By the way, why would you pay to elevate your home if you get the
double whammy of paying to elevate and then your premiums, in some
cases, are higher than when they started?
These are just two examples of people who did everything right, did
what they were supposed to--they are not going to flood--and yet, after
Risk Rating 2.0, this is what happened. I don't know if people still
say ``ripped off,'' but they feel ripped off. They feel as if they did
what was right and they have been punished and penalized because the
premiums almost or in some cases more than doubled relative to what
happens.
Now, these are nice homes, but they are not castles. These are
middle-income families. The neighbor is driving a pickup truck. It
looks a little bit--the Presiding Officer is a car dealer. That doesn't
look like it is a 2025. It is a good truck. It is a good family. These
are not wealthy families. They are good, middle-income families,
spending tens of thousands of dollars to elevate their home, and yet,
still, their premium continues to rise.
So with Risk Rating 2.0 driving up costs for lower and middle-income
families, about a fifth of those enrolled in the National Flood
Insurance Program will be forced to drop their coverage over the next
10 years, OK? You raise premiums, and you raise them to a degree that
20 percent of the people--typically the lowest risk--drop their
coverage. Then the Flood Insurance Program has to spread its risk over
a smaller base, which means it elevates the premiums even more, and so
those who need it least are the next 20 percent to drop off. This
initiates what is called an actuarial death spiral.
Risk Rating 2.0 is like termites eating away at the foundation of a
house, and if we do nothing, the home is going to collapse.
I introduced legislation in February to give low- and middle-income
households enrolled in the National Flood Insurance Program a 33-
percent reduction in their premium in the form of a refundable tax
credit that would go straight to their premium payment at the time it
is due.
Hurricane season won't wait on those who need flood insurance.
Americans in my State and across the country need relief now. If we
really want to put Americans first, we can start by making the National
Flood Insurance Program affordable now and keeping it affordable 10 to
15 years from now. It is a pocketbook issue, but when you flood, like
folks in Louisiana and other States have, it becomes a personal issue.
Since the start of 2025, at least 21 Americans across 8 States have
died as a result of flooding and storms hitting their communities.
Millions have been left without power or evacuated from their homes.
And when you hear ``flood insurance''--hey, I don't live in a coastal
State. I don't live in Florida or Louisiana. Why does it bother me? My
home will not get destroyed.
I wish that were true. This isn't a one-State problem; it is a one-
nation problem. All 50 States have National Flood Insurance Program
policyholders. The darker the color, the more likely the flooding.
Missouri is in a dark color. New York State--minimal coastline--is in a
dark color. Pennsylvania is in a dark color.
This is called river ring flooding, where you have a river and it
comes down like this, and people building in the valley get flooded
because the river overflows its banks, and it fills up that V-shaped
valley. So that is why you would see flooding.
And so that is why you see flooding here in the darker--not as dark,
but still dark.
You have the Dakotas also having problems with flooding. So it is a
50-State problem. And in these States, there are many who don't have
flood insurance, and the time will come when they wish that they did.
The National Flood Insurance Program can provide certainty for
individuals and for their families. Maybe you
[[Page S3136]]
won't see flooding as extreme as losing a home. I sure hope you don't.
But I am not just talking about the worst case scenario.
Let's imagine going back to this picture. The family didn't get their
home completely flooded. The family got 4 inches of water in their
living room. Their carpets are destroyed. If their floor is anything
but concrete, it is destroyed. If you have furniture in there that is
cloth, it is destroyed. If you get mold, then you are going to have to
rip out the sheetrock and replace wherever you had sheetrock. Two to 3
inches destroys the carpet. In fact, the most expensive 3 inches in a
flood are the first 3 inches. And that is what makes flooding so
difficult for a middle-income family to recover from.
And for many, the National Flood Insurance Program is the only option
they have. Now, by the way, the program designed to help them is
failing them, and when millions of Americans are being impacted,
Washington should act.
Let me be clear: the National Flood Insurance Program is a Federal
program, meaning that Congress and the President can change and improve
it. We just need to have the will.
So I urge my colleagues to join me in working with the Trump
administration to end Risk Rating 2.0.
In 2019, my office worked with the Trump administration to
successfully delay Risk Rating 2.0 because of the lack of transparency
as to how FEMA was calculating the rates. President Trump understood
then and understands now that Americans are tired of being ripped off.
When rivers swell, when coastlines have rising water, Americans
should not have to fear the cost of rebuilding without affordable
insurance. So let's make the National Flood Insurance Program
affordable, accountable, and sustainable.
Severe weather is relentless. We must be too.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from Delaware.
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