WASHINGTON – Sens. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) introduced an amendment that will tackle problems with the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), ensure the program’s affordability for middle-class homeowners and invest in cost-saving disaster mitigation and prevention.

“Louisianians are resilient, but they depend on affordable flood insurance to protect and rebuild their homes. FEMA is planning to raise flood insurance rates on Louisianians but refuses to explain how or why. It’s urgent that the Senate adopt this amendment to keep premiums from skyrocketing and to help protect Louisiana communities from future floods,” said Kennedy.

“In order to protect hardworking homeowners and ensure our nation is prepared for future storms, it’s vital that we make these reforms to the National Flood Insurance Program. I urge my colleagues to pass this amendment so we can ensure the NFIP is more sustainable and affordable for homeowners and that FEMA has the resources to invest in preventative and mitigation measures,” said Menendez.

The amendment includes the following measures:

• Premium hike cap: Currently, premiums can more than double every four years, but this amendment will protect policyholders from exorbitant premium hikes by capping annual increases at nine percent.
  
  
• Robust mitigation investment: Provides $25 billion in Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funding for states to invest in mitigation and prevention projects.
  
  
• NFIP debt interest freeze: Freezes interest payments on NFIP debt and reinvests savings towards mitigation efforts to restore the program to solvency and reduce future borrowing.
  
  
• Affordability for low- and middle-income policyholders: Provides a comprehensive means-tested voucher for millions of low- and middle-income homeowners and renters if their flood insurance premium causes their housing costs to exceed 30 percent of their adjusted gross income. This would significantly increase the affordability of the NFIP program.
  
  

Background on Kennedy’s work on flood relief:

• On July 21, Kennedy joined Louisiana’s congressional delegation in urging the Office of Management and Budget to prioritize Louisiana’s request for supplemental disaster relief in response to Hurricanes Laura and Delta.
  
  
• On June 21, Kennedy introduced the National Flood Insurance Program Consultant Accountability Act of 2021 to protect homeowners from parties found guilty of fraud that involves property damage assessments. 
  
  
• On June 7, Kennedy introduced the Flood Insurance Fairness Act to stop the Biden administration from unilaterally making changes to the NFIP that would raise premiums for Louisianians affected by flooding.
  
  
• On May 20, Kennedy spoke on the Senate floor against the Biden administration’s plan to facilitate raising flood insurance premiums in a way that could make it more difficult for Louisianians to afford flood insurance for their homes.
  
  
• On May 18, Kennedy urged President Biden to provide supplemental disaster relief for southwest Louisiana as the region suffered through flash floods.

Text of the amendment is available here.

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today introduced an amendment to the Senate infrastructure bill to help Americans claim almost $28 billion in unredeemed savings bonds.

“This money belongs in the hands of the American people. It shouldn’t be under lock and key at Treasury. This amendment will empower states to make sure that these dollars are returned to their rightful owners,” said Kennedy.

The Treasury Department is holding more than $27.9 billion in matured, unredeemed U.S. savings bonds, most of which the Treasury deems lost, stolen, destroyed or “unclaimed.” Many of these bonds were issued more than 70 years ago and are now matured—meaning they no longer earn interest for bondholders.

In cases in which bonds are not physically possessed by their rightful holders, only the Treasury has the names and addresses of the original bond owners, as well as the serial numbers needed to claim the bond proceeds. 

The Treasury has not taken any significant actions to proactively reunite bonds with their rightful owners despite its relaunch of Treasury Hunt, an online search tool that allows bond owners to locate bond information, at Kennedy’s request. Individual states, however, conduct programs that reconnect their citizens with unclaimed property.

Kennedy’s amendment would require the Treasury to provide states information about matured and unclaimed bonds so these states can use unclaimed property programs to help find the original owners (or heirs of these original owners) of these bonds. This provision would only apply to bonds that are matured and unredeemed as of December 31, 2017.

Text of the amendment is available here.

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today introduced the Click to Quit Act to require online platforms such as social networks, search engines and public websites to give users a straightforward way to delete their accounts. The Federal Trade Commission would penalize any platforms that violate this requirement.

“Quitting a social media account or a web app shouldn’t require a trip through a maze of tabs or legalese. Online platforms often make it confusing or hard for users to cut ties, and the Click to Quit Act would give users a quick, easy and sure way to delete their accounts,” said Kennedy.

Text of the Click to Quit Act is available here.

WASHINGTON – Sens. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), along with five of their Senate colleagues, sent a letter to Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Gary Gensler following the initial public offering (IPO) by the Chinese vehicle-for-hire company Didi and the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) enforcement actions against Didi.

The senators urged Gensler to enforce the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act and start thorough investigations of potentially fraudulent Chinese Companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges.

“As an illustration of our concern, the Chinese ride-hailing company, Didi Global Inc. recently held its initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Prior to the offering, Didi officials and executives downplayed the risks of imminent Chinese regulation in its IPO prospectus filed at the SEC despite news reports that the CCP warned Didi officials to delay the IPO. . . . Immediately following the IPO, the CCP’s cyber arm, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), opened an investigation into Didi claiming that the company violated Chinese privacy and national security laws. . . . Resulting from this CAC crackdown, Didi’s stock price plummeted only two days after its IPO. The timing of the CAC investigation conveniently occurred after the company was able to snatch billions of dollars from American investors,” the senators wrote.

“The Didi IPO also highlights the troubling trend of Chinese companies taking advantage of our capital markets while ignoring the transparency that is required under U.S. law to access U.S. markets. According to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, as of October 2020 there were 217 Chinese companies listed on U.S. exchanges, including 13 companies that are claimed by the CCP as Chinese state-owned enterprises. We have serious doubts that these companies are in compliance with U.S. transparency requirements,” the senators continued.

“All of this requires the SEC to get much more serious and focused on U.S. listed Chinese companies, starting with the full enforcement of the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act that became law last year after passing both chambers of Congress unanimously. This law will delist Chinese companies that do not comply with Public Company Accounting Oversight Board inspections within three years. The SEC should recognize the urgency of implementing this law and begin counting compliance years now. Congress has already recognized this urgency and is currently considering accelerating this law’s compliance shot clock,” the senators continued.

The senators recommended that, to combat the threat of fraudulent Chinese companies, the SEC should also:

• Launch investigations into Chinese companies, like Didi, and their underwriters to combat potential fraud and reporting oversights.

• Investigate the potential risks that certain Chinese-controlled shell companies pose to U.S. investors.

• Consider cooperative efforts among American, European and Japanese stock exchanges to prevent prospective or delisted Chinese companies from working their way into other prominent markets.

• Investigate index providers doing business in the U.S. that continue to add Chinese companies to their products despite these companies’ lack of transparency.

Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) joined Kennedy and Sullivan on the letter.

Text of the letter is available here.

Background

Last December, the president signed into law Kennedy’s Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, which prohibits a company from being listed on any of the U.S. securities exchanges if the company has failed to comply with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s (PCAOB) audits for three years in a row.

Many Americans invest in U.S. stock exchanges as part of their retirement and college savings, and dishonest companies operating on the exchanges put Americans’ investments at risk. This legislation protects the interest of hardworking American investors by ensuring that foreign companies traded in America are subject to the same independent audit requirements that apply to their competitors in America and other countries.

This June, the Senate also passed Kennedy’s Accelerating Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, which would put additional pressure on China by requiring foreign companies to comply with PCAOB audits within two consecutive years instead of three. This would help remove fraudulent and non-compliant companies from U.S. exchanges more quickly.