© 2024 WGCU News
PBS and NPR for Southwest Florida
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Mini Patch For Flood Insurance Rate Hikes Passes

The spending bill needed to keep the government funded includes a patch for some people facing sky rocketing flood insurance costs.Florida lawmakers are still working on a longer term solution. 

Hundreds of thousands of home and business owners across the US are facing sticker shock as they're getting new flood insurance policies: some have seen their rates go from just a few hundred dollars to thousands of dollars. The spending bill relaxes that rate hike for about ten percent of policy holders, which Florida Democratic Senator Bill Nelson says is positive. But he says lawmakers now need to pass a bill to delay those rate hikes for four years.“Now we’ve got to pass the overall bipartisan bill, which we will", Nelson Promised. "I think we have the votes, it’s just a question of whether or not the opposition is going to make us go through all the legislative parliamentarian hoops, which will stretch it out a couple weeks. But we’ll get it passed.”

Nelson is expecting that legislation to come up soon. It would require FEMA to t do a study on the new flood maps which critics say are unfair.