After weeks of floor debate and herculean efforts by a handful of determined Senators, on Thursday afternoon, the Senate passed the Homeowners Flood Insurance Affordability Act (S. 1926) by a strong vote of 67-32. The bill now heads to the House, where the legislation will face a tough journey towards final passage, unarguably more difficult than its Senate run.
The homestretch for S. 1926 began Monday evening when the Senate agreed to end debate, allowing them to proceed on voting up or down on seven amendments. On Wednesday afternoon, however, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) brought a budget point of order to the floor, saying that the bill violated the Budget Act of 1974 because bill activities added to the deficit. A motion to waive all applicable budgetary discipline was quickly launched. The motion to waive any violations to the Budget Act of 1974 was agreed to after a couple short hours of debate. Later that evening, the amendments offered by Senators Reed, Whitehouse and Gillibrand were quickly passed by voice vote. On Thursday morning, the Senate shot down the Toomey, Coburn, and Heller amendments. Senator Merkley withdrew his amendment from consideration. After a short lunch recess, Senators reconvened in the chamber at 1:50PM, strongly passing the bill a short time later.
In general, S. 1926 calls to delay the implementation of certain parts of Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reauthorization Act of 2012 for four years to allow for FEMA to address affordability and mapping issues before rate premium changes are implemented. Although the “as amended” text version of S. 1926 (S. 1926 including the Reed, Whitehouse, and Gillibrand amendments) will not be available for a couple of days, the bill can be found at Congress.gov here, which will be updated as soon as the amended version is available.
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