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Floor Speech

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Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. President, recently, there was flooding in Texas. The tragedy there is unspeakable--135 lives claimed. And you can't listen to the story of the young campers being swept away literally by the flood waters without getting emotional--26 feet of water rising in just 45 minutes.

And so, for many Americans, that is hard to imagine--but for not as many as you might expect.

According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, nearly every parish and county in the United States has experienced flooding in the last few decades--not every State, every parish and county.

No place in our country is untouched by flooding. For example, not in New York City. This is New York City--New York City, as we used to say down South. It saw its second wettest hour in history this month as rain caused what the New York Post headline described as ``terrifying, freak flash flooding.''

Not New Mexico, on the bottom of this. New Mexico, what you think of as being in the desert, saw deadly flooding this month despite its dry climate. We in Louisiana, as well as anybody, know that there is a tragedy which can result not just with the flooding but can result after the flooding, a tragedy which people cannot afford to live in their homes no matter what they do to prevent future flooding because of unaffordable flood insurance rates.

I am all about preventing the first tragedy. How do we stop the initial episode of flooding?

I have supported the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, or BRIC, grants, and the administration has assured me that they are going to release those funds.

I also want to prevent the second tragedy of people losing the place where they have lived, perhaps for decades--no matter what they do to prevent their homes from flooding again--not because it is destroyed, but because they cannot afford flood insurance at a reasonable rate on a property that once flooded but now the risk has been mitigated.

That is why I continue to work toward a solution on the National Flood Insurance Program: Make flood insurance affordable again.

Until the program is affordable for a homeowner, accountable to the taxpayer, and sustainable for future generations, Americans will, unfortunately, be forced to drop the program because they can't afford the premiums.

Now FEMA aid may be available to help people repair homes after a federally declared disaster, but it often covers just a fraction of the cost. And, by the way, because of FEMA's risk rating 2.0, people whose homes have never flooded or people who have taken measures so their home will not flood again are, nonetheless, forced to pay outrageous premiums.

You might think: How can a working American be expected to afford flood insurance when the price spikes so much? Or maybe you think: Well, it is expensive, but some can still afford the program.

Well, we have another problem threatening the flood insurance program: It expires September 30.

If we do nothing, every American enrolled in the National Flood Insurance Program, which is millions of Americans, will be without protection by the time the next flood season starts. National emergencies won't stop, the destruction will not end, the threat of flooding will not vanish, but the safety net to rebuild a life--that will go away.

Now I am working on a long-term National Flood Insurance Program reauthorization and reform bill to stabilize the program, protecting taxpayers and protecting communities. When all Americans are affected, a Federal response is necessary, and I want to work with President Trump and my colleagues to make flood insurance affordable again. 20th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina

Mr. President, I want to mark the upcoming anniversary of one of the worst disasters my State and our country have ever faced: Hurricane Katrina.

Twenty years ago this August, Louisiana and much of the gulf coast region suffered a devastating blow that required such a response. It is a heartbreaking anniversary. Hurricane Katrina killed hundreds of Americans, separated families, and destroyed belongings we thought would be cherished forever.

The devastation was felt in every community. You may have had your home destroyed in New Orleans East, but if you lived in Shreveport or in Bossier City or in Monroe, our fellow Louisianians came there to live in the Hirsch Coliseum, the Bossier City Civic Center, to stay there, sleeping on a mat in a communal setting, walking over here to take a shower or over there to go to the bathroom, because their homes had been destroyed.

In Baton Rouge, I led a group of volunteers to convert an abandoned K-Mart into an emergency surge facility for the overflow from the regular hospital. You know, because of that, looking around at the failure of government at every level, I thought, my gosh, maybe I should run for office. And I have been working to prevent another disaster on this scale ever since.

Since then, Louisiana and our Nation have invested $15 billion in the levee system, and these have helped prevent flooding.

There is a levee system in what we call the Bayou Region. The Bayou Region touches the Gulf of Mexico. The flood mitigation structures we built have been said to have prevented 10,000 homes from being flooded during Hurricane Ida. We know that building resiliency works.

In the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, I worked to get millions in coastal resiliency grants and millions more in flood mitigation assistance grants for my State but for other States similarly affected.

One example, by the way, if you fly into New Orleans and you drive towards Baton Rouge, around a city called LaPlace, there is a huge flood control structure, and you can see how the swamp has been separated and that they are building the mound of dirt in between. That is what the money is going for, to prevent these communities from being flooded again.

If you go to Lake Pontchartrain, there is money to restore what is called the batture. The batture is the area between the levee and the water level. We have invested money as a Federal Government and as a State government to rebuild that batture, and in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, more money was applied.

You knew it worked because one of our storms--I happened to be out there looking, and there was a wave that crashed off Lake Pontchartrain. It hit the batture, it began to crest, and it fell. As it fell, it almost hit to the top of the levee, and a few drops went over. That batture being built out kept the wave from cresting right next to the levee and that water going over and flooding everybody on the other side.

Building resiliency works. It works for the Federal taxpayer, it works for the Louisiana taxpayer, and it works for the families whose lives are secure.

Improving highway evacuation routes, hardening the electrical grid, and investing in flood mitigation are all things I worked for in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The reason I did it is that we can't prevent another hurricane, but we can prevent the bad things that happen afterwards.

As the 20th anniversary approaches, we are reminded of those losses but also the gallantry, the true gallantry of the American people, because in the worst times, we come together. We are seeing the same reaction following the terrible flooding in Texas.

In the weeks following Katrina, people from all over the world and all over the country stepped up with disaster relief. Now we see that in Texas. I am told that Florida, Kansas, Pennsylvania, California, Nebraska, Illinois, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio--I could list the States, all sent National Guard. I am sorry, that was in Louisiana.

But, similarly, people from different States all went to Texas to help--Indiana, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Missouri, and it continues. When tragedy hits, Americans respond.

We may not be able to take away the pain of loss--I wish we could-- but Congress can help ease the financial burden of recovery, and an essential way to do that is by making flood insurance affordable.

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