Right now, an important issue going on in Congress that’s top of mind for folks in Southeast Louisiana is Risk Rating 2.0, the new federal flood insurance policy. We've heard horror stories from our surrounding parish presidents as to how their constituents are dealing with massive increases to their flood and homeowners insurance - many residents are foregoing insurance altogether because they are priced out due to the new risk rating. David Stokes, the Chief of Staff for Senator John Kennedy, spoke with me about the bipartisan push to hold FEMA accountable and get to the bottom of RIsk Rating 2.0.
We have just heard horror story after horror story from folks who are facing premiums as high as $12,000. Simply stated, it's getting hard to live here.
We have been fighting Risk Rating 2.0 since its inception. One of the big things we have found is when we ask FEMA where they come up with these numbers, they give you some excuse that it's “in the algorithm.” We have brought a bunch of the senators together to press FEMA to show us exactly how they're coming up with these numbers. We're trying to get to the bottom of why these numbers are as high as they are.
The exigency of this is of significant concern. Right now, we have residents making decisions about whether or not they're staying in Louisiana. They've recognized that they can't pay these high insurance premiums and also continue to work and enjoy their lives here.
Since Hurricane Laura and Hurricane Delta, we've seen a significant exit for families moving over to Houston and over to Mississippi. It's not just Risk Rating, 2.0. It's hard to get just basic home insurance right now. Insurance providers have left the state. There’s constituents all across the state that can't pay their national flood insurance premiums and now, they can't pay their homeowners insurance either. The people of Louisiana are asking themselves - why am I staying here?
Other cities are facing flood events, most recently Dallas and others as we saw in Kentucky. Yet, I don’t know what the BIden administration's resistance is. I thought we had a chance to move to an all-hazards type of federal insurance policy. They seem to be more concerned about student loan debt relief than the homestead of every hard working American family in this country.
You're starting to see more Democrats come wanting to expand the National Flood Insurance Program so you have more buyers. Also, more people are starting to realize flooding can happen anywhere. Too many people in Congress associate flooding with hurricanes or natural disasters, but flooding can happen at any moment in time. What we're trying to do is get a coalition of Democrats on board despite what the Biden administration's doing. We need to expand the NFIP so more people can pay into it, and in doing so, we'll lower the premiums for Louisiana families.
