WASHINGTON — Legislation that would delay new and stricter federal flood insurance requirements has coasted through the House, but is having a tougher time in the Senate.
Senators from two states that straddle the flood-prone Mississippi River - Arkansas’ Sen. Mark Pryor, a Democrat, and Mississippi’s Sen. Thad Cochran, a Republican - worry that the new maps don’t properly reflect the true risk of flooding, since the new maps were drawn by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the same agency that runs the deeply-in-debt federal flood insurance program.
“They have an incentive to sell insurance,” Pryor said.
FEMA officials did not return calls Friday.
Craig Fugate, the agency’s director, has maintained that the program is attempting to accurately define the risk of living in areas with a history of floods.
So far, however, Pryor and Cochran have been blocked twice from getting their legislation onto the Senate floor.
“We’ve been working this hard,” Pryor said, “but I don’t think we can get anything done before the August recess.”
Though its schedule is subject to change, the Senate is set to recess on Aug. 6, and won’t reconvene until Sept. 13.
FEMA began issuing newly revised maps this year that updated areas that it says are vulnerable to a 100-year flood, a deluge so large there is only a 1 percent chance of a flood its size happening each year.
In those areas, residents and businesses who purchase or improve land with federally backed loans or who want federal help in the event of a flood must purchase flood insurance. They can purchase insurance through the FEMA-run program, or private insurance, which can be much more expensive.
The new maps are being issued on a rolling basis, and Arkansas was among the first states where counties were presented with new floodzone areas.
This spring, the agency started sending letters to towns and counties in Arkansas, warning them that if they didn’t update their flood-mitigation ordinances, they could be suspended from the federal insurance program. The ordinances place restrictions on development and penalties on violators.
The deadlines vary. Currently, 39 counties in the state are in the process of having their maps redrawn, according to Pryor’s office.
Rob Rash, chief executive officer of the West Memphis based St. Francis Levee District, has estimated that the remapping will require 125,000 Arkansans to purchase flood insurance for the first time.
Property owners would face an annual premium of $700 for a house valued at $50,000, and up to $2,500 for a $250,000 house.
Though a bill addressing the maps easily sailed through the House on July 15 on a 329-90 vote, Pryor’s measure isn’t a sure thing in the Senate.
A speech on the House floor during debate on the bill by Rep. Candice Miller, a Michigan Republican, illustrated the sectional tensions that could come into play in the upper chamber.
“In Michigan,” she said, “we actually look down at the water, we don’t look up at the water,” suggesting that flood-prone areas shouldn’t be subsidized by the rest of the country.
Miller said that repetitive losses represent only 1 percent of the policies in the program, but 25 percent of the damage claims.
“We keep paying over and over again claims for some Americans to live in flood prone areas,” she said.
Pryor said he’s not worried about getting the votes. A bigger problem, he said, is finding a legislative vehicle to attach the amendment to.
“That’s our biggest obstacle,” he said.
Because Arkansas is among the first states with counties receiving new maps, other senators may not see the urgency in bringing changes to a vote, he said.
Rep. Marion Berry, a Democrat from Gillett, said that the bill’s passage in the House was helped by Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat who leads the House Finance Committee subcommittee with jurisdiction over the issue.
Though new maps have not been introduced throughout California, certain towns, including Sacramento, sit in flood plains.
“Maxine was very sympathetic to our problem because they have the same problems in California as we do in Arkansas,” Berry said.
The House bill would delay for five years the requirement that property owners in flood hazard areas purchase flood insurance. It would waive the insurance requirement for people living behind floodprotection systems, such as a system of levees, and it would require FEMA to annually notify residents in flood hazard areas each year that they need insurance.
Pryor’s bill would require FEMA to take into account existing levee systems when determining flood zones, and set up an independent arbitration panel to rule on disputes.
He said FEMA has told him it would present its own arbitration plan to him this week.
As of Friday, 401 municipalities in Arkansas participated in the flood insurance program, down from 404 in May. Mississippi County and two towns in the county - Keiser and Wilson - were dropped because they did not have flood ordinances approved by FEMA in place.
The county Quorum Court has already voted down the required flood-mitigation ordinances twice. Among other things, the new ordinances would require buildings to be elevated in some cases above 500-year flood plain levels; drainage plans would need to be crafted; and electrical, heating and ventilation systems would need to be designed to minimize water damage.
One of those opposed to the proposed regulations was Justice of the Peace John Alan Nelson.
Of particular concern, he said, was the treatment of agriculture. Often rice and cotton farmers he represents will change the grading and drainage systems of their fields - ordinary farming practices that could run afoul of the proposed rules, he said.
A third vote is set for Tuesday. Nelson said the FEMA representatives were waiting on approval from Washington to insert language in the proposed rule to exempt farming practices.
While representatives in Washington took a dim view of FEMA’s communication skills - Berry called Fugate, the agency’s director “one of those fortunate people who’s always wrong, but never in doubt” - Nelson’s experience with regional representatives was different.
“They’ve been well-informed and informative to us,” he said.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 07/26/2010