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Floor Speech

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Mr. CASSIDY. Madam President, the National Flood Insurance Program Risk Rating 2.0 has officially been in effect for almost a year, and families in Louisiana are feeling the unfolding disaster.

We are not talking about a storm or a flood, which the National Flood Insurance Program is supposed to protect against. We are talking about the financial crisis unfolding at kitchen tables. Families cannot afford the premium hikes that the NFIP is planning with Risk Rating 2.0. For some, the premiums have become unaffordable and threaten the collapse of the value of their home.

For now, rate hikes are capped at 18 percent per year, but these compound year after year. So for the couple who has lived in their house for decades, they are not thinking, OK, it is only 18 percent. No, they are thinking it is 18 percent compounded upon 18 percent. And they don't have a plan to move: Oh, let's escape from it. This is where they have been for decades. Eighteen percent compounds and adds up very quickly.

This is not fiction. These are real stories that I hear from folks in Louisiana--great Americans, great Louisianians who love our country-- and they are wondering what in the heck is going on.

An example is the Bourgeois family, an elderly couple in Raceland. They both turned 83 last year. They have owned their home for 56 years. It has never been in a flood zone, and it has never flooded. Before Risk Rating 2.0, they paid $500 a year in flood insurance premiums. After Risk Rating 2.0, they are scheduled to pay, when fully in effect, $500 per month--from $500 a year to $500 per month.

Their full risk premium will reach almost $6,300 in 14 years, but their annual payment will double in the fourth year.

So how many 83-year-old retired couples do you know who can afford an extra $5,800 in expenses just like that?

The holiday season just passed. I am sure the Bourgeois family--we have big families in South Louisiana--had their children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews. But I am sure there is extra budgeting this year.

Families should not have to spend holidays budgeting for this kind of increase in flood insurance premium when they have never flooded. That is the crazy thing about it. They have never flooded, and these are the premium increases that they are seeing.

Now, families across Louisiana and in America's coastal communities-- not just in Louisiana--are finding themselves in a similar situation to the Bourgeois'. By the way, Louisiana has been hard hit by hurricanes over the last few years: Ida, Delta, Zeta, and Laura. Folks in my State are still recovering, and they are responsible for maintaining their insurance. But with Risk Rating 2.0, it feels like the Biden administration is kicking them when they are trying to get back on their feet.

So it begs the question: Why is the administration allowing Risk Rating 2.0 to take effect?

Congress never required FEMA to implement this. President Biden can stop it with a stroke of the pen. He has the power. He should have asked FEMA to delay or cancel the implementation of Risk Rating 2.0 or to reconsider it altogether.

Throughout the process, though, FEMA has not only been slow to share information with policyholders, they have stonewalled Members of Congress. They are not being upfront about the costs to policyholders. Homeowners did not get significant information from FEMA until less than a month before Risk Rating 2.0 began to be implemented, and now many Louisiana policyholders are getting notices in the mail of their new risk premiums. Folks in my State, they feel blindsided. The Bourgeois family was blindsided when they got a notice that their full premium will go from $500 a year to $6,295.

We are here to serve the American people. And in case folks think, no, this is not true, they can look at this property--Four Point Drive, Raceland, LA--and they can see that it has never flooded. They can see that this is a single family, a main dwelling. They can see that it is a modest home; it is not a big mansion. The Bourgeoises are not millionaires. And then they can see the premium they have to pay. They can see that there are no discounts being applied and that their premium eventually grows to that full-risk premium.

Now, it is not just this family with this; I have a dozen more insurance bills from constituents showing massive premium hikes through no fault of their own. They are penalized just for living where their families have lived for generations. With Risk Rating 2.0, FEMA has put them into an impossible situation.

Now, by the way, families are now choosing to drop out of the program because they can't afford the premium. The pool of homeowners is becoming smaller, leaving those subject to the mandatory requirement to buy insurance worse off. Those who are required to own are now faced with the difficult task of coming up with thousands more to pay their insurance or lose their mortgage.

FEMA knows this is going to happen. They know that up to 20 to 25 percent of those policyholders will drop their policies because they cannot afford them. That has the potential to put this into what is called an actuarial death spiral, where the risk is placed upon fewer and fewer; therefore, premiums go up even greater and greater; therefore, more and more have to drop. If the intent is to destroy the program, to not help Americans in times of flooding, this policy could not be done more effectively.

There has to be another option. Congress has taken steps to avoid major flooding in the future. Louisiana has already received over $680 million for coastal restoration, flood, and waterway projects from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. It is already delivering on its promises.

When I was helping to negotiate the bill, I had those Louisiana families in mind. What can we do to lower their risk of flooding-- which, by the way, then helps everyone else in our country--to help make this Flood Insurance Program more affordable and sustainable?

Now, the second half of helping these families is ensuring that they are not forced to move because of unaffordable flood insurance premiums. Flood insurance must always remain affordable and accessible to the homeowner, accountable to the taxpayer, and sustainable for the future. Only President Biden has the power to change that now, which he has the responsibility to do.

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