Sen. Lisa Murkowski pushed back against what she calls the federal government’s fuzzy math and “bizarre” property risk decisions again by voting for The Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act.
House Resolution 3370 is a bipartisan bill that allows many homeowners with flood insurance prior to July 6, 2012 to keep their policies for as long as they own their home.
Sen. Murkowski spoke about the effect of FEMA’s flood mapping to the Senate Floor.
Sen. Murkowski: “I have people all over my state just upset. As upset as they can possibly be about the FEMA flood plains and the maps. I’ve got folks from Juneau to Fairbanks to the Mat Su Borough that are saying we don’t understand this, we don’t know if we have to get a LOMA or a LOMR. We don’t understand how we could have gone from a situation where we weren’t close to a flood plain and now apparently we are in jeopardy, we have to hire a civil engineer to basically move through this process. Based on what I’ve heard from folks back home my suggestion is that you go back to the drawing board on this with wholesale reform and really focus on understand-ability and customer service.”
The bill combats a steep rise in flood insurance costs that could push some Alaskan homeowners out of their homes and also requires the Federal Emergency Management Agency to reassess its flood insurance mapping formulas to make sure they are technically sound.
The bill has passed both chambers of Congress and now heads to the President for his signature.
Sen. Murkowski co-sponsored the Senate version of the bill that passed through the Senate in January.
