Press releases

Watch Kennedy’s speech here.

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today 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.

Key comments include:

“President Biden, at the worst possible time, is about to raise the insurance premiums for every flood insurance policyholder in America—or almost all of them. So much for not hurting the middle class. So much for not taxing the working people.”

“We insure through our National Flood Insurance Program—which once again is the almost exclusive source of flood insurance for the American people—we insure about 5 million people. About 500,000 of those people are in my state, Louisiana.”

“Now, this is all a very clever way to raise everybody’s premiums. As best I can tell, about 80 percent of the people in my state, who have to have flood insurance, are going to see their rates go up. And FEMA’s probably going to start by doing a little bit the first year, and they’re going to say, ‘See, we told you that wasn’t going to hurt.’ But then they’re going to do it the second year, and the third year, and the fourth year, and the fifth year and the sixth year.”

“President Biden’s FEMA is just going to drop this on us. And it’s not just Louisiana. Now, this does involve Louisiana. I mean last year, my people, we got hit by two major storms, we got hit—like a lot of states—by an ice storm. Right now, south Louisiana, a big portion of it’s under water. We just got hit with between eight and 20 inches of rain. And we have people flooding who are not even near a body of water. And I promise you, Mr. President, if you get eight to 20 inches of rain in a short period of time, you’re going to flood. I don’t care if you’re in the desert. I don’t care if you’re on Pike’s Peak. You’re going to flood. The water’s got to go somewhere.”