Congress is discussing ways to delay flood insurance hikes that will affect thousands of people living along the Gulf Coast and in other disaster-affected areas of the country. A law passed in 2012 designed to gradually phase out flood insurance subsidies is scheduled to go into full effect this year, and although the bill was intended to protect some areas of the country from huge, essentially overnight hikes. Another provision of the law prohibited FEMA from grandfathering in older rates after new flood maps were issued. In the wake of last year’s many storms, those maps have been redrawn and many homeowners who have never even had flood insurance before are facing huge insurance bills and hikes that many have said will render their properties difficult, if not impossible impossible to sell.
Those homeowners may soon be able to breathe a collective sigh of relief thanks to a temporary stay included in a $1.012-trillion spending bill to fund the government. The stay is likely largely a political maneuver that will enable one or both sides of the aisle to claim they are championing the rights of these homeowners during the 2014 mid-term elections. Senator Mary Landrieu (D-Louisiana) said that this bill is her work, and added “I just cannot go home again without getting this fixed.” On the other hand, her challenger in the mid-term elections, representative Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), is also claiming to champion the measure and added that his party is presently “working through the process” of how to permanently help the affected homeowners.
Paddy Deighan J.D. Ph.D
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