President Obama signed the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act into law on Friday, which includes an amendment coauthored by Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) to prevent sharp increases in flood insurance rates.
The Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 reformed the National Flood Insurance Program to reduce its dependency on taxpayer funding and address a $24 billion program deficit. New flood insurance rate maps under the measure would have led to sharp increases in premiums.
Cassidy and Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.), who sponsored the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act, coauthored the amendment. It limits allowable per-property rate increases, instructs FEMA to minimize the number of policies with annual premiums exceeding one percent of a policy’s value, requires notification of changes to FIRMs and brings more transparency to the program.
“Today is a great day for Louisiana,” Cassidy said. “The Grimm-Cassidy flood insurance reforms will reinstate grandfathered rates, cap premium increases, reform the FEMA flood mapping process and help stabilize our housing market. (Friday’s) signing was made possible due to the broad coalition we built to push the House, Senate and president to back the legislation.”
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), a cosponsor of the legislation, said the new law will provide families with long-term solutions to flood insurance rate increases that would have resulted from BW-12.
“Louisiana families finally have the peace of mind in knowing that a real solution to the long-fought battle to provide flood insurance relief to homeowners has been signed into law,” Scalise said. “This victory could not have been achieved without tremendous hard work from the broad bipartisan coalition we built over the last year. I look forward to FEMA’s effective implementation of these much-needed solutions and immediate relief for Louisiana homeowners.”