Homeowners facing massive Spikes in their flood insurance rates may not be out of the water yet. The Senate bill delays that increase for four years as FEMA studies the impact of the policy. South Florida Republican Mario Diaz Balart says the flood insurance program, which is currently saddled with about twenty four billion dollars in debt, is unsustainable.
“What is also not sustainable is to all of a sudden have folks have their rates shoot up tenfold", said Diaz Balart. "hat’s unacceptable.”
iaz Balart says while many of his fellow House Republicans don’t like the idea of delaying the rate hike for four years, they’re open to a compromise. But he says he still hopes they can usher in new reforms that will make the program sustainable in the long run.
“I’ve seen a myriad of different ideas and obviously postponing it for one year doesn’t do much. However the reality is that very soon people are going to get hit with these escalating, huge spikes in their flood insurance, which is something that they can’t deal with. We’re going to have to deal with that. I’m hoping we can deal with it in a long term way but if we need to buy some time to do that, so be it.”
There's been no vote scheduled on the measure in the House.