Landrieu Secures $100M to Update Flawed and Inaccurate Flood Maps

Press Release

As part of her ongoing efforts to build a more affordable National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), the chair of the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, U.S. Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., today announced that she has included $100 million for FEMA to update and correct flawed flood maps across the country. The Senator reversed the President's $11-million cut to the program and added an additional $5 million after David Miller, the head of FEMA's NFIP, testified in May that most of the nation's flood maps are not accurate and reliable. When added to the $121 million in fees dedicated to mapping activities, the bill provides $221 million total for updating flood maps.

The funding is part of the bill that funds the Department of Homeland Security for FY2015 and keeps the promises that Sen. Landrieu made earlier this month in New Orleans to reverse the President's shortsighted cut to the program. Sen. Landrieu also announced that on July 23, 2014, she will conduct a hearing to hold FEMA accountable for implementing the Homeowner Flood Insurance Act accurately and efficiently. The hearing will focus on pressing FEMA to release the additional guidance insurance companies need to calculate and process refunds to individuals that paid more than they should. The bill is expected to pass the Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday.

"Too many of FEMA's flood maps are out of date and flawed, and hard-working middle class families should not have to pay high flood insurance rates based on maps that fail to recognize the levees that have protected their communities for decades. Reversing the President's $11-million cut and adding additional funds to update Louisiana's and our nation's flood maps is a smart step toward building a flood insurance program that works for the 5.5 million people who live along our coasts, bayous and rivers where they work," Sen. Landrieu said. "I will continue to use the full power of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee as we work toward building a stronger, smarter flood insurance program--one we can live with, grow with and prosper with."

SEN. LANDRIEU'S WORK TO MAKE FLOOD INSURANCE AFFORDABLE, ACCESSIBLE AND SUSTAINABLE

Called the Paul Revere of flood insurance for her early warnings about the flawed 2012 Biggert-Waters flood insurance bill, Sen. Landrieu worked to build a bipartisan and geographically diverse coalition of senators to repeal the most pernicious provisions of the law and to return affordability as the centerpiece of the National Flood Insurance Program.

She was instrumental in adding additional affordability protections in the final version of the bill. One of those provisions, the 18 percent individual annual property cap, is being implemented currently to prevent skyrocketing year-over-year rate increases. This follows her announcement that the property sales trigger, which had frozen the real-estate market and threatened to rob middle class families of their wealth, is gone.

In May, Sen. Landrieu announced that FEMA fully repealed one of the most harmful provisions from Biggert-Waters that made it impossible for new buyers of homes or businesses to assume a property's existing flood insurance policy. The provision, repealed by the Home Flood Insurance Affordability Act, had frozen real estate markets throughout the nation and threatened to wipe out the equity thousands of middle class families had built in their homes.

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