Schumer, Gillibrand Announce FEMA Fixes to Help Homeowners Fallen Victim to Flood Insurance Process That's Stacked Against Them

Press Release

United States Senators Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand today announced a critical commitment they received from the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) to take major actions to help homeowners still struggling to rebuild their homes by increasing transparency, fairness and credibility within the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims process. Senators Schumer, Gillibrand, Menendez and Booker met with FEMA Administrator Fugate this week to push for many of these changes.

"It is of the utmost importance that Sandy victims receive prompt reimbursement from flood insurance providers based on the damages incurred to their property, end of story. I'm pleased FEMA has heard our call and started to take the critical steps to rectify several roadblocks to a fair claims process," said Senator Schumer. "New York policyholders should not be flatly denied claims based on trivial deadlines; should not be shortchanged due to backwards incentives for insurance providers; and do deserve an office within FEMA to help advocate on their behalf when the insurance claims process turns sour. These changes by FEMA will mean significant progress to ensure that homeowners can receive the critical funding that they deserve."

"This is finally some good news for these families devastated by Superstorm Sandy that FEMA will take some concrete steps to provide greater transparency for Sandy survivors and cut bureaucratic red tape that has blocked hundreds of families from much-needed help," said Senator Gillibrand. "I thank Administrator Fugate for listening to us and ordering insurance companies to comply with a judge's order to turn over all documents relating to engineering reports to the public and for doing the right thing for families whose appeals were dismissed. We will continue to push to ensure that New York families get the help they need and deserve."

The announcement comes just two days after the Senators met with FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate to press again for reforms in the NFIP claims process.

The Senators outlined the main problems with the NFIP claims process and major actions FEMA has committed to take:

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