‘We Need To Keep The NFIP Affordable For Working Families’: Bill Cassidy Discusses Flood Insurance

3 months ago

During Senate floor remarks prior to the Congressional recess, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) spoke about the importance of affordable flood insurance.

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Transcript

00:00broken. May I ask that you vitiate the quorum call? Without objection. Madam

00:07President, I happen to know you're from Mississippi, so as I speak about flood

00:10insurance, I suspect there's people in Mississippi whom you know, perhaps are

00:13related to, that can relate to that of which I described. And I'm speaking

00:18specifically about the uncertainty felt by those who rely upon flood insurance

00:23as we enter hurricane season. And unfortunately and tragically, we actually

00:28have a real live example of this, as Hurricane Beryl has hit an area that

00:34was devastated by Harvey just a few years ago. And anyone along that Gulf

00:39Coast who's dependent upon flood insurance to rebuild, and their premiums

00:43just rose, have now been hit by Beryl, and they can anticipate their premiums

00:47rising once more. And a program that is supposed to give security instead is

00:51creating anxiety. Now it isn't just that people flood, because some people who

00:57don't flood, who have never flooded, will see their premiums rise as well. Why?

01:04It's because the way that this program is being, this program is being

01:11implemented. And let me say that Louisiana stands with Mississippi,

01:17Louisiana stands with Texas, and we stand with all parts of the nation that will

01:21suffer under the way that this program is being implemented. And so let me put

01:26up my first floor chart. We have the National Flood Insurance Program, or NFIP

01:31as we call it, as a safety net for homeowners after a storm. It protects

01:36them from being financially wiped out by a hurricane, or any other act of flooding.

01:40But this year is different from past years for two reasons. First, the

01:46National Weather Service predicts that 2024 will see above-normal hurricane

01:51activity in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. Second, there's much more

01:57uncertainty about, and this is the key thing, much more uncertainty about

02:02whether NFIP will remain affordable due to FEMA's new risk assessment system

02:07called Risk Rating 2.0. And for most people, the short answer is no. No, that

02:15it will remain affordable. But this is not the issue just for Louisiana. It

02:22affects Mississippi, it affects Texas, it affects all coasts, and any place where

02:27there's a river or a stream, any place there is water, there's a risk of

02:31flooding. National Flood Insurance Program covers 4.7 million policies

02:35across the country. And so those 4.7 million Americans rely upon NFIP to

02:42ensure their homes, businesses, to keep their families safe. And we've seen

02:48flooding in states that you typically don't think of when you say flooding.

02:52Virginia, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Texas,

02:59Pennsylvania, California, Mississippi, Alabama, all are all states that have

03:04had more than $1 billion in NFIP claims since 1978. Again, over these states, over

03:13$1 billion in claims since 1978. And those are just the state's hardest hit,

03:19those in the dark. These lighter colored states have all been affected as well.

03:24Now, maybe not a billion, but if you're the family whose home has been washed

03:29away, it's affected you in one of the most profound ways. I'll also point out

03:34that this is not a rich man's program. If you look in these communities like

03:39Pennsylvania, oftentimes it's called riverine flooding, and folks who are less

03:44well-off tend to have the older homes in the bottom of the valley. And the

03:49flooding goes through and rips up their homes, they have fewer financial

03:53resources by which to rebuild. So the kind of charge that this only protects

03:57luxury homes on a beach, totally false. This is for middle-income families,

04:03working families, and poor families, allowing them to have the security that

04:09they can rebuild after a tragic event. In the past three years,

04:14we have seen seven major flooding events across the country, each costing more

04:20than a billion dollars. In 2021, Louisiana saw flash flooding

04:26affecting thousands of homes. California, the state where the president now

04:30represents, has had two major floods in January of 2021 and the winter of 2023.

04:37Kentucky and Missouri both saw major flooding in July 2022. Florida in April

04:4323. Vermont, New York, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, each hit in July 23. And in

04:51December 23, we saw flooding along the East Coast states from Florida to Maine.

04:56Remember, these are just the floods that have cost over a billion dollars in

05:02damage. And when we consider, once again, who lives in these areas most affected,

05:09we see why we need to keep the NFIP affordable for working families. 62% of

05:15all NFIP policies are in parishes and counties where the median household

05:20income is below the national average of about $54,000 a year. Once more, these are

05:28not millionaires' beach homes. Hardworking people, uncertain whether

05:32they'll be able to stay in their home because of a decision made by a

05:36bureaucracy with zero input from Congress. Now we're seeing the

05:41consequences of that decision, with an estimated 900,000 people, one-fifth of

05:46all policies, dropping coverage because it's unaffordable. When that happens, the

05:52pool of policyholder shrinks and the program enters what is called an

05:56actuarial death spiral, where the risk is put on fewer people, which raises the

06:01premiums even more, which makes those who are, relatively speaking, least at risk

06:05drop their policies, which concentrates us more, once more, a death spiral, setting

06:12up the program for collapse. Congress needs to do something before it's too

06:16late. First, we need to step back and ask how we got into this situation. Why did

06:22FEMA implement risk rating 2.0? Why inject this much uncertainty into the

06:28system? Congress never passed a bill requiring FEMA implement this. President

06:33Biden could have stopped it with a stroke of a pen. We've done it in the

06:37past. In 2019, my office worked with the Trump administration to successfully

06:41delay implementation because of concerns over the methodology of how

06:46FEMA was calculating rates. This time, even though the concerns remained, the

06:51Biden administration would not work with us. Now, since the Biden administration is

06:55allowing this to happen, Congress must step in. My team is working on a

07:00bipartisan solution that will roll back risk rating 2.0 and make flood insurance

07:05affordable and accountable again. Let me say to my colleagues, let's talk about it.

07:10Let's have a conversation. Every single member of this body has

07:15constituents who rely upon the National Flood Insurance Program. We owe it to

07:20them to find a solution to a system that isn't working for Americans who were

07:24promised a safety net in case of a flood. Let's get to work. With that, I yield and

07:31ask, Madam President, that the next segment of my remarks be entered as if a

07:37separate, separate, my next portion be entered separately into the record.

07:46Without objection. Madam President, as you know, as members of Congress, we are

07:55fortunate to have highly motivated and productive younger people working for us,

08:00essential for our country to meet its goals. I rise today to honor a member of

08:06my team who, for seven years, I have been fortunate to work with. One of the best,

08:11my health policy director, Mary Moody Johnson. On Capitol Hill, a lot of our

08:18staff come and go pretty quickly, so when you have someone who stays with you for

08:21seven years, who's loyal to the things you're loyal to, dedicated, working so

08:28hard for so long, you feel a special attachment. After almost a decade on

08:32Capitol Hill, Mary, seven of which she spent in my office serving the people of

08:37Louisiana, and first in my DC office, then on the Health, Education, Labor, and

08:41Pensions Committee, Mary is moving on to a new professional challenge at the end

08:46of this week. It's bittersweet. She's played an incredible role in the success

08:53of my office in lowering the cost of health care and serving the Americans we

08:57represent. Just some examples. If someone says, my gosh, we've made a lot of progress

09:02in terms of mental health reform, Mary Moody is one of those who is critical to

09:07that. If somebody has a surprise medical bill which they appeal and get reversed,

09:12that was Mary Moody, now Mary Moody Johnson, taking three years to work

09:20with other offices and with stakeholders to come up with a bill which passed both

09:26houses of Congress and was signed into law, and it should have been called the

09:30Mary Moody Johnson's End Surprise Medical Billing, from all of my concern.

09:34She worked long hours with long spreadsheets and she got a bill that has

09:42saved maybe as many as a million surprise medical bills a month. On a

09:47personal note, it's a privilege to be her friend. She came in my office when she

09:52was 24 and had a grandmother from Louisiana convince me that she had deep

09:58ties into our state, so I hired her, and turns out she was from Texas. I've never

10:04let her forget that, but I especially like that she married a man from

10:08Ponchatoula, Louisiana, and I was able to attend their wedding in the Merigny

10:13section of New Orleans a year and a half ago, and now she's just ready to move on.

10:17I get that. At some point, it's not what you do for the rest of your life, it's

10:22what you do next, and both because of her marriage and other reasons, her

10:25commitment to her church, she's ready to try something else. I'm thankful for all

10:29she's done. I'm sure pass her cross again, and I'm excited to see what happens next.

10:34So we all wish her the best as she moves on. She'll be missed by all, but our loss

10:39is someone else's incredible gain.

10:42I yield. Madam President. Senator from West Virginia.

‘We Need To Keep The NFIP Affordable For Working Families’: Bill Cassidy Discusses Flood Insurance

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