Members of Congress are working to reauthorize the National Flood Insurance Program, and try and stop massive rate hikes from happening.
Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy is among those on Capitol Hill working on bipartisan legislation to reauthorize NFIP for five years. The senator says the bill includes reforms to try and make it more efficient, so it costs less.
"Reforms that would take care of some of the waste and the abuse, the inefficient spending of dollars," said Cassidy, "that would also reward those homeowners that did things to mitigate their flood risk."
That includes buying out property owners in areas that have suffered repeated flood losses.
"There would be dollars to buy out homes that are at repetitive risk of flooding," Cassidy said, "to elevate other homes, to build flood protection structures to protect an entire community."
Cassidy says FEMA’s Risk Rating 2.0 alters the premiums some would pay under the National Flood Insurance Program dramatically, something that Cassidy says is unacceptable.
"We want to make sure that the National Flood Insurance Program is affordable, sustainable and accessible to the homeowner that needs to have it," he said.
