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Regular Session, 2013 ENROLLED
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 114
BY SENATORS MILLS AND PERRY
A RESOLUTION
To memorialize the Congress of the United States to prevent unnecessary and unintended
harm to coastal communities, individuals, and businesses by immediately amending
the Biggert-Waters Act and mandating revision of Federal Emergency Management
Agency flood-risk maps.
WHEREAS, in 2012 Congress re-authorized the National Flood Insurance Program
in the Biggert-Waters Act; and
WHEREAS, language in the Biggert-Waters Act phases out certain subsidized flood
insurance rates, thereby allowing rate increases to the costs of obtaining such flood insurance
of either twenty or twenty-five percent a year, depending upon the property, until rates reach
actuarial status; and
WHEREAS, at the same time the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
issued new flood-risk maps showing that properties not protected by one hundred year flood
federal levees would be considered as inadequately safeguarded against floods, with the
result that such properties became significantly higher-risk property for the purpose of flood
insurance rate premium calculation and elevation requirements; and
WHEREAS, the confluence of these two events has resulted in potential economic
disaster for coastal communities, businesses, and individuals now faced not only with
unaffordable flood insurance premiums but also with the inability to transfer or sell property
deemed by FEMA to be at higher risk of flooding; and
WHEREAS, legislation and amendments are pending in Congress to delay the
premium increases authorized by the Biggert-Waters Act for one year to determine the
effects of such changes upon the availability, affordability, and sustainability of flood
insurance; and SR NO. 114 ENROLLED
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WHEREAS, FEMA is also now in discussions to reconsider and revise its flood-risk
maps to include the effects of locally-built levees, pumping stations, and floodgates, all of
which have been funded, designed, and built to provide substantial protection from flooding,
and also to develop new maps that more accurately reflect actual area flood risk; and
WHEREAS, it is necessary for both Congress and FEMA to take immediate action
to prevent pending and unintended economic catastrophe for coastal communities,
individuals, and businesses; and
WHEREAS, without action by both Congress and FEMA, it has been estimated that
at least half a million homes and businesses in Louisiana could be severely impacted, and
that other coastal communities outside of Louisiana could face similar economic devastation,
including communities, individuals, and businesses in New York, New Jersey, and other
states severely damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana memorializes
the Congress of the United States to prevent unnecessary and unintended harm to coastal
communities, individuals, and businesses by immediately amending the Biggert-Waters Act
and mandating revision of Federal Emergency Management Agency flood-risk maps.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution shall be transmitted
to the secretary of the United States Senate and the clerk of the United States House of
Representatives, and to each member of the Louisiana delegation to the United States
Congress, and to the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE