{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.cassidy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cassidy-delivers-floor-speech-urging-congress-to-make-flood-insurance-affordable-again/", "Cassidy Delivers Floor Speech Urging Congress to Make Flood Insurance Affordable Again", "2026-05-14", "2026", "2026-05", "Republican", "Senate", "LA", "Bill Cassidy", "C001075", "www.cassidy.senate.gov", "cassidy", "https://www.cassidy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/?jsf=jet-engine:press-list", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) delivered a speech on the U.S. Senate floor highlighting the growing flood insurance affordability crisis ahead of hurricane season and calling for long-term reform of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). He urged colleagues to address rising costs driven by the Biden-era Risk Rating 2.0 policy and act before the next storm threatens Louisiana families.\n\n\u201cEvery year, more and more people have to drop their National Flood Insurance Program coverage because it is too expensive and too unreliable, so this is about making flood insurance affordable again,\u201d said Dr. Cassidy.\n\n\u201cI tell folks, I wake up every morning and think about how to make life better for the people of my state and my country, and I can tell you that reliable, accountable, affordable flood insurance is part of that,\u201d continued Dr. Cassidy.\n\nCassidy\u2019s remarks as prepared for delivery are below:\n\nMadam President,\n\nHurricane Season is less than three weeks away.\n\nThree. Weeks.\n\nWe\u2019ve got to act now to make flood insurance affordable again before it\u2019s too late.\n\nLast year, thankfully, no hurricanes hit Louisiana.\n\nNow, no hurricanes hitting my state\u2014that\u2019s good news for everybody in Louisiana!\n\nBut especially for homeowners who do not have flood insurance.\n\nEvery year, more and more have to drop National Flood Insurance Program coverage because it\u2019s too expensive and unreliable.\n\nBetween 2022 and 2024, 70 THOUSAND people in Louisiana dropped coverage.\n\nLast year, another 52 THOUSAND did the same.\n\nWhy?\n\nThey need it.\n\nThey try to be responsible.\n\nThey can\u2019t afford it!\n\nThey\u2019re being priced out of flood protection by the rising costs of a post-Biden era flood insurance program.\n\nUnder Joe Biden, FEMA implemented Risk Rating 2.0 as a new risk assessment program, despite Congress never signing off.\n\nSince 2023, rates have increased, making people\u2019s flood insurance premiums so high they just cannot afford it.\n\nThey cannot pay their mortgage if they pay their flood insurance premium.\n\nMr. President, these are hardworking families just trying to do the right thing, having to choose between paying their mortgage, buying food, taking care of their kids, and having flood insurance.\n\nThey would like to have flood insurance.\n\nThey would like to go to sleep at night knowing that they are protected if some terrible flooding event occurs.\n\nFor example, in 2016, a 46-foot river crest swept the land completely out from underneath a Cypress Point home, even though they elevated it above the base Flood Elevation.\n\nThis is a family doing everything right, but a natural disaster still wiped out their home.\n\nIt would be great if they had flood insurance. But it\u2019s possible they can\u2019t afford it.\n\nSo, if Congress has the power to guarantee reliable flood insurance that people can afford, why don\u2019t we?\n\nInstead, nearly one-fifth of folks in Louisiana on the National Flood Insurance Program\u2014nearly a hundred thousand\u2014can no longer afford their insurance.\n\nBy the way, this is a problem nationwide.\n\nMillions of Americans across the nation rely on the National Flood Insurance Program.\n\nThey\u2019re all getting pounded by Risk Rating 2.0.\n\nI\u2019m leading a group of Republicans who, last year, tried to end the policy.\n\nI recently followed up with FEMA, asking that they be urgent in addressing the harm Risk Rating 2.0 is doing to the flood insurance program for people in Louisiana and across the nation.\n\nI understand, as does President Trump, that the American people need to be able to afford every day goods.\n\nAnd right now, they cannot afford flood insurance.\n\nIn 2019, President Trump and I worked together to delay Risk Rating 2.0 for a year. Let\u2019s do that again, but let\u2019s make it permanent.\n\nThe American people need flood insurance which is affordable and also reliable.\n\nRight now, the NFIP relies on Congress to both fund and authorize the program.\n\nFund, meaning that if funding is ever withheld by Congress\u2014like the Democrats have done multiple times this Congress\u2014the National Flood Insurance Program cannot operate effectively, leaving millions of Americans hanging in uncertainty.\n\nNow, Congress must vote every year to reinstate the program.\n\nI introduced legislation to automatically extend the program to operate during a lapse in authorization\u2014so it can still issue policies, renew contracts, pay claims, and access funding.\n\nCoverage should be there, whether politicians decide to get their act together or not.\n\nCongress needs to act, and soon.\n\nIn the meantime, federal support is critical.\n\nIn President Trump\u2019s first administration, he created a program called BRIC\u2014short for Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities.\n\nThe BRIC program provided cost- and life-saving grants that Louisiana benefited from.\n\nPresident Trump\u2019s second administration assured me they would release more BRIC funds, and I\u2019m pleased to say, FEMA just announced that a new round of BRIC funding has been released\u20141 BILLION dollars to help states impacted by natural disasters.\n\nLouisiana will certainly benefit.\n\nI have been fighting consistently to get this done, and I\u2019m pleased that it has.\n\nBut as much as we need recovery assistance, we in Louisiana know that the best way to lower the cost of flood insurance is by making sure you don\u2019t flood in the first place.\n\nThat\u2019s why, through my work negotiating the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, our state has gotten hundreds of millions for flood mitigation and coastal restoration.\n\nThis is a bargain for the federal taxpayer, because it\u2019s easier and cheaper to prevent a flood than it is to pick up the pieces afterward.\n\nOne example is if you go from Kenner to Baton Rouge, and you pass LaPlace, you\u2019ll see construction on a huge flood control structure, which I toured last August.\n\nThat has received over a BILLION dollars, which I\u2019ve obtained to prevent those people from flooding and to prevent the National Flood Insurance Program from having to pay out a benefit.\n\nI\u2019m a doctor. I know that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.\n\nIn this case, 1.2 BILLION dollars for prevention is worth maybe 70 billion in recovery.\n\nGo to Terrebonne or Lafourche Parish, and you\u2019ll go by the Morganza to the Gulf levee project.\n\nThis is a project with tremendous local support, for which I\u2019ve been able to get 615 MILLION dollars through the infrastructure bill and other mechanisms, including a funding package recently signed into law by President Trump.\n\nAnd you know the positive impact of this?\n\nEven before completion, when Hurricane Ida came, they said there were 10 THOUSAND homes that did not flood.\n\nThat\u2019s ten THOUSAND claims that did not have to be paid.\n\n10 THOUSAND homes that did not need to be cleaned out.\n\nThat saved the taxpayer money, aside from the fact that those families were able to continue working, going to school, living as usual, keeping our society and our economy running.\n\nI find that moms rest easier knowing their families will stay safe and dry when the next storm comes.\n\nThe funding I am delivering gives her that peace of mind.\n\nAnd there is more to come.\n\nI wake up every morning, and I think about how to make life better for the people in my state and in my country.\n\nI can tell you: reliable, accountable, affordable flood insurance makes life better.\n\nThat\u2019s what I\u2019m working towards as I continue sending tax dollars back to my state for flood prevention.\n\n###", 1, "2026-05-15T06:17:41Z", "2026-05-15T06:18:51Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.cassidy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cassidy-delivers-floor-speech-urging-congress-to-make-flood-insurance-affordable-again/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.9774772226810455, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}