Flood insurance bill heads to House
Analysts with the R Street Institute think tank, which has offices in Washington, D.C., and Tallahassee, said the House bill would undermine the government flood program in the long run, causing taxpayers to permanently subsidize 700,000 older homes.
Besides being fiscally irresponsible, the change in policy will continue to encourage people to live in hazardous coastal areas, said R Street senior fellow R.J. Lehmann.
“Against the backdrop of rising sea levels, it [Biggert-Waters] represented a step in the direction of environmental responsibility to stop subsidizing development in risk-prone flood zones,” Lehmann said in a written statement.
“What Congress is clearly demonstrating now is that neither party is ready to be quite that responsible,” he said.
