Flood Insurance Provision in 2014 Appropriations Package
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I supported the passage of the bi-partisan and bicameral Omnibus Spending Bill yesterday because it does away with the meaningless budget sequester that hurt American families by indiscriminately slashing funding to important government programs such as Head Start, new pre-K initiatives, infrastructure investments, and funding for the Affordable Care Act. However, I did so with reservations about it’s failure to address imminent flood insurance premium increases, an issue exacerbated by Super Storm Sandy.
The Omnibus Spending Bill included an amendment that will ensure grandfathered policies maintain their government subsidies until 2015. I spoke on the House Floor explaining that this is a minimal win because the subsidies were supposed to be removed gradually over 5 years. Moreover, FEMA was not yet fully implementing the gradual removal of subsidies for these policies because the new flood maps are not yet ready. The bigger problem that is not addressed by this amendment is with newer policies, those not grandfathered, or policies written for a property recently sold. These are the policies experiencing very high flood insurance premiums and rate increases, which need to be protected. To rectify the issue, I am hopeful that Congress will pass the Home-Owner Flood Insurance Affordability Act that I am a cosponsor of, which provides a comprehensive delay of increasing flood insurance premiums.
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Congressman Gregory Meeks 