Mike Castle can sleep in his beach house soundly knowing that you are on the job heavily subsidizing his choice to live next to the unpredictable Atlantic Ocean totally risk free. You feel good about yourself, right? Castle deserves his sound sleep.
Actually, I’m not crazy about the set up. I happen to think that people who decide to live in flood plains should shoulder the risk of that reckless behavior. It is the one area of common ground I had with teabags, and it was the one positive outcome from the Democratic Party’s adoption of austerity mania. We can’t afford to cover Mike Castles flood risk, nor should we have to. For a while it looked like we were going to get out from under having to pay Mike Castle’s beach house flood insurance premiums, but now it looks like that ain’t happening.
For the majority of people who participate in the National Flood Insurance Program, the first set of federally mandated reforms will have little or no impact. But those who will see a change are in for some major sticker shock.
The Biggert-Waters Reform Act of 2012 seeks to end subsidies. But even as the reforms are implemented, what lies ahead for the act remains to be seen. The U.S. Senate has passed a measure requiring a four-year delay on implementation that would in essence kill the law, which is due to expire in 2017. The U.S. House has yet to take up the Senate’s bill, but even one of the law’s sponsors, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., is pushing for a three-year delay.
If the legislation is not changed, over the next few years, most subsidies will be eliminated, said Richard Sabota, Federal Emergency Management Agency Region 3 insurance specialist, during a Feb. 21 workshop at the CHEER Center in Georgetown.
I’m not holding my breath.
UPDATE: Thehill.com provides a little insight into why you will continue to pay Mike Castle’s insurance premiums:
Trade groups in Washington won a major victory Tuesday as the House passed a bipartisan deal on federal flood insurance.
Groups representing builders and realtors had lobbied hard for a legislative fix for the program, warning that a spike in premiums threatened to spread economic pain across the country and dampen the housing recovery.
With the deadline for action approaching, the House was on Tuesday night approved legislation that would repeal reforms to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) that Congress passed just two years ago.
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/199876-behind-flood-bill-a-torrent-of-lobbying#ixzz2v6lkOa1O
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