Flood insurance hikes loom for La. homeowners
The free market-supporting, nonprofit R Street Institute in Washington also has helped lead the effort to prevent undoing the NFIP “reforms” of 2012.
“(The) bill proposes an absurd and protracted process — four years, at minimum — of studies, recommendations, hypothetical and nonamendable future pieces of legislation, and then, for good measure, an extra six months of ramp-up, before a single property would see their rates adjusted to reflect their real risks,” R Street Senior Fellow R.J. Lehmann said. “The unstated, but quite clear goal of this convoluted process is simply to gut any reform until the NFIP’s existing statutory authority would be scheduled to expire.”
“By keeping rates far lower than the private market ever would for some flood-prone properties, the program encourages development in ways that endanger lives and harm the environment,” added R Street President Eli Lehrer. “That’s why it’s disturbing that so many in Congress — including some who stand firm against government meddling in other areas of the economy — have embarked on an effort to undo modest reforms that actually move the program in the right direction.”
