Senate Appropriations Committee approves a homeland security spending bill
WASHINGTON -- The Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday approved a homeland security spending bill that would delay potentially hefty increases in flood insurance premiums for policyholders, particularly in South Louisiana, for one year. It passed committee by voice vote.
The flood insurance provision, offered by Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La, is similar to a measure already adopted by the House. It is aimed at a 2012 flood insurance law that authorizes rate hikes -- phased in over five years -- for properties that are designated as greater flood risks under new flood maps being developed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Some of the rate increases will be substantial, though FEMA says the vast majority of state residents will be spared big rate hikes and some will see reductions.
The spending bill now goes to the full Senate.
"When people play by the rules and build their homes and businesses up to code, they don't expect to see their insurance premium skyrocket," Landrieu said. "But that is exactly what is happening to too many people who live and work along the coast."
FEMA has said it will work with homeowners to minimize the flood risks. But advocates for the one-year delay say it's important to give Congress, and FEMA, a chance to ensure homeowners aren't hit with premiums that they can't afford.
Some have questioned the accuracy of new flood maps because, initially, the agency did not give credit to locally built levees. Since then, FEMA has said it would incorporate the local levees into its risk assessments.
Landrieu added report language to the Senate Homeland Security bill that requires FEMA to credit local levees in its flood risk maps.
"This is another step in our effort to ensure that flood insurance is affordable, accessible and self-sustainable, and that flood maps recognize the reality on the ground," Landrieu said. "Flood protection is about more than just numbers. It is about community; it is about culture; and it is about preserving a unique and treasured a way of life."
The flood insurance language amendment adopted by the Senate Appropriations Committee, and approved earlier by the House, doesn't deal with another provision of the 2012 flood insurance law that allows FEMA to increase rates for subsidized policyholders by up to 25 percent a year. Primary residences are excluded from the law until the homes are sold. But that provision, Louisiana Parish official say, would make the homes unsellable.
The House-passed amendment was sponsored by Reps. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans, Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson and other members, including some from New York and New Jersey, where homeowners are also facing large increases in premiums.
"I'm glad the Cassidy Amendment took another step towards becoming law today," Cassidy said. "It
is my hope that it will be passed before the full U.S. Senate as soon as
possible."
Cassidy and other backers of the temporary flood insurance fix say the one-year delay in implementing changes in grandfathered policies would give FEMA and Congress time to ensure that rates aren't raised so much as to make them unaffordable.
The flood insurance provision didn't generate any direction opposition, although some members warned it would be a mistake to significantly alter the 2012 flood insurance reform law they said was crafted to make the debt-ridden program fiscally sound.
Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., who worked to reform the flood insurance program with others, including fellow Banking Committee member David Vitter, R-La. said the flood insurance law drew rare bipartisan support.
"This is a feat we don't always accomplish here and I hope we don't go back on that," Shelby said.
Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., said he would hate for Congress to go back on what was prolonged legislative effort to discourage people from building in flood-prone communities.
Landrieu said the next step will be bringing the Homeland Security spending bill to the full Senate. If the Senate passes the measure, it would go to a House-Senate conference committee and ultimately final approval in both chambers and signature of the bill by President Barack Obama.
But Landrieu said that's a taller order than normal because all 2014 spending bills face a major obstacle. The GOP-led House and Democratic-Senate passed sharply different budgets, and Senate Republicans have blocked votes that would have named Senate negotiators to work out the differences.
If there is no budget agreement, it's likely that the House and Senate leaders would negotiate an omnibus spending measure for all federal agencies. In the past, many of those bills have simply continued funding levels and policies from previous years - a scenario that could spell trouble for the flood insurance amendment and others incorporated into House and Senate-passed spending bills.
Landrieu, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee that wrote the spending bill, also added report language directing FEMA to better coordinate with the Army Corps of Engineers in the assessment of the effectiveness of levees in terms of flood protection.