Flood Insurance Bills From Yardley Area Lawmakers Progressing

YARDLEY, PA —With flash flood watches and warnings issued earlier this week, it's almost perfect timing that a bill establishing a task force to address rising flood insurance premiums is progressing.

Senate Bill 442 and House Bill 735 —sponsored by state Sen. Steve Santarsiero (D-10) and State Rep. Perry Warren (D-31) —were voted unanimously out of the Senate Banking & Insurance Committee Tuesday.

“Eight years ago, I introduced what was then HB 1299 and today is SB 442, to help Pennsylvanians find relief from rising flood insurance premiums,” Santarsiero said. “Then, as now, residents in neighborhoods along the Delaware River were facing skyrocketing flood insurance costs that threatened their ability to protect their homes and made it almost impossible for them to sell.”

That's especially true in Yardley where a floodplain exists. Lower Makefield also experienced "catastrophic flooding" in the early 2000s.

Santarsiero and Warren both represent the borough and Lower Makefield Township.

Reforms to the National Flood Insurance Program that Congress passed in 2012, called the Briggert-Waters Act, phased out the federal subsidy for flood insurance costs and directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to revise its flood plain maps.

Those new maps included many more homes in the flood zones and required flood insurance.

In late 2014 and early 2015 Santarsiero held town hall and neighborhood meetings, as well as discussions with local stakeholders and elected officials.

From those meetings, it became clear the best option at the state level was a task force to review the problem and identify state solutions, he said.

SB 442 would establish the Flood Insurance Premium Assistance Task Force to explore ways to lower flood insurance premiums and incentivize communities to invest in flood prevention measures.

The task force would consist of one appointee each from the Director of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, Insurance Commissioner, Secretary of Banking and Securities, Senate Majority Leader, Senate Minority Leader, House Majority Leader, and House Minority Leader.

The task force would have the power to review and analyze existing laws, procedures, practices, processes, and rules related to the administration of flood insurance. In addition, the task force would hold public hearings and accept written comments from the public.

The task force would have six months to issue a final report to include recommendations on:

• Potential programs to provide flood insurance premium discounts.
• Potential programs, whether through the mechanism of premium discounts or other relief, that create incentives for local governments to undertake or continue mitigation efforts;
• The implementation of necessary changes in state statutes and practices, policies and procedures relating to the administration of flood insurance;
• Ways to educate the public about flooding risks and mitigation techniques;
• How to inform Pennsylvanians about flood insurance options when purchasing;
• Recommendations to increase the number of flood insurance policies purchased by Pennsylvanians.

“When I was a township supervisor in Lower Makefield Township after three catastrophic floods in 2004, 2005, and 2006, we took local action implementing new engineering controls, like backflow preventers, and adopted a nationally-recognized Low Impact Development Ordinance to reduce stormwater runoff,” Santarsiero said. “Those are the types of things that the state could potentially incentivize local governments to do to reduce costs for residents.”

Warren, who succeeded Santarsiero in the House, authorized House Bill 735, which passed the House in May and was also voted favorably out of the Senate Banking & Insurance Committee.

“Our respective districts have among the most waterfront property in Pennsylvania," Warren said. "We need to create a more equitable way to tabulate flood insurance premiums, and our current system is becoming unsustainable for our neighbors who live on or near the flood plain. These bills will help create solutions.”

Either or both bills need to be passed by the Senate and sent to the House for passage before being presented to the Governor for his signature.