National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014

Floor Speech

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Ms. WARREN. I thank the Senator from Louisiana for the question, but most of all I thank her for her energetic leadership on this issue; she will help us find the right way forward.

I am here today because of what I am hearing from families in Massachusetts. I also thank the Senator from Mississippi. This is something that is hitting us all around the country--this change in the flood maps. So I am here today to support my colleagues' bipartisan efforts to help homeowners across the country who are getting hit with newly revised flood maps and increased flood insurance premiums.

Families purchase flood insurance to prevent the loss of their homes during a natural disaster, but now many of these same families fear that the price of flood insurance could be just as devastating and could actually cost them their homes.

I understand why Congress changed the national flood program to more accurately reflect the true costs and risks of flood damage, and I agree that over time we need to move to a more market-based system for setting flood insurance rates, providing we adequately take into account the affordability concerns for working families. But that is not what is happening right now. These new maps and rate increases are having as big an impact as a big storm.

When FEMA released these flood maps earlier this year and last, they knew they were placing hundreds of thousands of homeowners into a flood zone for the very first time. Yet there was inadequate warning to homeowners. Many have started receiving letters from their mortgage companies and are learning for the first time that they must now purchase flood insurance. We have heard about the costs--$500, $1,000 a month, even more. Most hard-working families and most seniors don't have that kind of extra money on hand to spend on flood insurance premiums they never knew they needed.

One Massachusetts resident wrote to me and said:

I have owned my property for over 33 years. Twelve years ago I built a house according to the codes at the time. Recently, flood maps were redrawn, putting my home in a new flood zone and out of compliance. The implementation of the Biggert-Waters act is going to raise our flood insurance to $10,000 or more per year. I follow the rules, and now the rules are changing, leaving me few options to comply.

The Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act that I have cosponsored along with Senator Landrieu and so many others will provide relief to this homeowner and to others who built to code and were later remapped into a higher risk area. This critical bill will delay rate increases until FEMA completes affordability studies mandated by the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act and until subsequent affordability guidelines are enacted.

There is a second problem with FEMA's actions. The reclassifications have taken place in some areas without a careful and complete analysis, but for those who believe they haven't been correctly classified, it is a tough challenge to get their flood zone status changed.

I received another letter from a Massachusetts constituent who lives in Brockton. She was informed that her only way out of this mess was to pay more than $1,000 for an engineer to come and conduct an elevation study of a nearby brook. Now, let's be clear. She had to spend this money even though the city of Brockton and the nearby Army Corps of Engineers have no record of the brook ever flooding. If her appeal is successful, she is still out $1,000 due to FEMA's mistake.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.

Ms. WARREN. Then I will just say I am pleased to join my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in calling for this commonsense delay which will give FEMA time to get this right. I thank Senator Landrieu for her leadership, and I thank Senators MENENDEZ, ISAKSON, COCHRAN, and all the cosponsors of this bill. Time is running out. We need to get this done.

I yield back.

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