Effort to delay some NFIP rate hikes dies in Congress, for now
From PropertyCasualty360:
Ray Lehmann, a senior fellow at the R Street Institute, a Washington conservative think tank, says, “We are pleased to see that a decade of hard work to achieve substantial reform of the NFIP won’t be undone by a unanimous consent amendment process to an unrelated bill.”
As to the plight of residents of Plaquemines Parish, Lehmann said that the combination of grandfathering and FEMA’s total negligence in keeping flood maps up to date has created the problem.
“Opponents of flood reform are now throwing out these scary figures that a property 6 feet below the base flood elevation might eventually be asked to pay $25,000 in premiums,” Lehmann says. “But that ignores the obvious — a property six feet below should not be eligible for flood insurance! The rate increases are phased in to allow for the property to either be elevated or bought out and relocated.”
