Menendez, Pallone tout flood insurance reform legislation

<p>Five years after Superstorm Sandy devastated towns along the Jersey Shore, Sen. Bob Menendez and Rep. Frank Pallone want changes made to federal flood insurance that they say will reduce waste and delays.</p>

News 12 Staff

Aug 18, 2017, 12:55 AM

Updated 2,585 days ago

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Five years after Superstorm Sandy devastated towns along the Jersey Shore, Sen. Bob Menendez and Rep. Frank Pallone want changes made to federal flood insurance that they say will reduce waste and delays.
The two Democrats have proposed legislation that caps annual flood insurance premium increases, holds FEMA to strict deadlines for payments to homeowners and pays for advanced flood mapping technology.
“I want to make sure that Sandy victims and others like them never go through what they went through again, where they were consistently denied, arbitrarily and capriciously,” Menendez said Thursday. “They shouldn’t need a United States senator to fight for them…They should get paid what they’re entitled to.”
Flood insurance legislation passed in 2012 is set to expire next month, and Pallone and Menendez want to add those and other reforms to a reauthorization.
Menendez cited the case of a New Jersey family whose annual flood insurance premium rose from $600 to about $30,000 before it was corrected, due to a loophole in the flood mapping process.
Menendez says that the bill has bipartisan support, from coastal states.
The Associated Press wire services contributed to this report.