WASHINGTON -- There is still no definitive word on whether House-passed legislation to limit most flood insurance premiums to increases of 18 percent a year will come up for a Senate vote this week.
The Senate is taking up a child-care bill, and leaders were looking to get a vote on another bill, as well, before recessing Thursday night. That might put off a Senate vote on the flood insurance bill until the week of March 24.
But there's also a question about whether sponsors of the flood insurance bill could get the unanimous consent to bring the legislation up for an expedited vote.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has been insisting he get a vote on a proposal that would change a provision in the House bill that provides refunds to people who bought homes since the Biggert-Waters flood insurance law took effect in January 2012. Rates for homes that changed owners, or people whose coverage lapsed since the law took effect in July, 2012, are liable for the higher premiums under Biggert-Waters, without the four-or five year-phase in allowed for most other policyholders.
Lee said the refunds should be limited to owners of primary residences, not people who bought second, or vacation homes.
If he insists on amending the House-passed bill, it could block a unanimous consent request to bring up the flood insurance bill this week. The Senate is slated to be on recess next week.
Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said he has talked to Lee, and Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., who had also raised concerns that the House-passed bill represented too much of a pullback from the 2012 Biggert-Waters law designed to make the flood insurance program solvent.
"I'm confident we've cleared the way for a vote -- and likely passage of the flood insurance permanent fix bill today or tomorrow," Vitter said Wednesday morning
(March 12). "Far too many homeowners are facing unaffordable flood insurance rate increases, and I want to get them some certainty that we've fixed a major problem with the National Flood Insurance Program."
Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., the bill's lead sponsors, have been trying to reach an agreement with Lee, according to Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La. Still, she said, there's reason for optimism that the House-passed bill will be enacted -- "hopefully this week," but, if not, soon thereafter.
The Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act legislation, which passed the House 306-91 last week, incorporates provisions in the bill passed by the Senate on Jan. 30. But it takes a different approach in terms of cancelling, rather than simply delaying, some provisions of the 2012 Biggert-Waters law that are leading to large increases in some flood insurance premiums.
The House legislation limits yearly premium increases to an average of 15 percent per year for each of the nine property categories listed by FEMA, and stipulates that no individual policyholder pay an increase of more than 18 percent per year. It calls on FEMA to "strive" to reach the goal that most policyholders have a premium of no more than 1 percent of the value of their coverage -- in other words, $2,000 for a $200,000 policy.
The bill also reinstates the flood insurance program's grandfathering provision, meaning homes that complied with previous flood maps would not be hit with large increases when new maps show greater risk of flooding. It also ends a provision that required an immediate hike to actuarial levels when a home changes ownership -- slowing home sales in many communities designated high risk by FEMA flood maps.
The retention of subsidized rates in the House bill are funded by a $25 surcharge for most homeowner policyholders, and a $250 fee for non-residential property or non-primary residence homeowners.
During a hearing Wednesday of her Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, Landrieu pressed newly installed Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to ensure that the program remains affordable to middle-class homeowners. She suggested that one way to make the program more solvent would be to get more people to sign up for flood insurance. She told Johnson that only 60 percent of those required to have flood insurance do so.
"I agree with you that the more participants you have in an insurance program the healthier the program ought to be," Johnson told Landrieu.
Landrieu, who chairs the Homeland Security subcommitee, said even when the Senate passes legislation to insure that affordability remains a key component of the program, more action will be needed.
"It will be the responsibility of this subcommittee, as well as other committees in the Senate and House, to craft a program that works decade to decade so generation after generation can continue to affordably and safely live along our coasts and inland waterways where they work to power our nation's economy," Landrieu said.
Johnson expressed surprise that even some governors don't seem to realize that FEMA has an appeals process for homeowners who believe new FEMA maps overstated flood risks.
The House bill was sponsored by Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y., with a list of co-sponsors that include Reps. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans and Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson.
"I am pleased that the Grimm-Cassidy substitute amendment to the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act is advancing in the U.S. Senate," Cassidy said. "This essential legislation will help make flood insurance more affordable for millions of Americans."
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