Flood insurance becomes political tool in Senate race

WASHINGTON — It's been months since Congress acted to protect thousands of homeowners from dramatic premium increases under the National Flood Insurance Program. But for Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu and the leading Republican in the race to take her seat, the issue is still very much alive.

Landrieu and Rep. Bill Cassidy regularly remind Louisiana voters of their individual roles in helping win passage of the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act. The bill, signed into law on March 21, caps annual increases in federal flood insurance premiums at 18%.

The issue is among the tools that Landrieu and Cassidy, locked in a heated election race, use to score political points on the campaign trail. The race could be crucial in determining which party controls the Senate beginning next year.

"This is an issue that both will use, and have been using, to say, 'Look, here's an example of what I've been able to accomplish in Washington, D.C.,'' said Joshua Stockley, a political scientist at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. "They see it as a positive that they can accentuate. But I don't think either campaign realistically is using this issue as the issue by which they're going to win.''

Stockley said both Landreiu and Cassidy can legitimately claim to have played a vital role in getting the flood insurance bill passed.

On Wednesday, Landrieu used her role as chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security to hold a hearing called "Insuring our Future: Building a Flood Insurance Program We Can Live With, Grow With, and Prosper With."

In promoting the hearing, she promised to push for faster refunds and more accurate flood maps. She also underscored her role in helping to get money to update flood maps.

Landrieu says flood insurance — along with energy, education and other issues — resonates with Louisiana voters.

"It's this and a dozen other issues that people are going to have to say ... 'Does Sen. Landrieu's leadership make a difference?' " Landrieu said. "I think it's clear that it does."

Landrieu questioned federal emergency officials at Wednesday's hearing about plans for flood maps and checked on implementation of the new flood insurance law.

"This is not just a Louisiana (or) Mississippi coastal issue,'' she said at the hearing Wednesday. "This is a national issue of the highest priority.''

Last week, Cassidy issued a press release announcing that checks will start going out Oct. 1 to reimburse people who began paying higher flood insurance premiums before the new law took effect.

The release makes clear that the reimbursements are thanks to "the Grimm-Cassidy Substitute Amendment" that Cassidy authored with Republican Rep. Michael Grimm of New York.

"As so many families are struggling in today's economy, ensuring that families receive these refunds as quickly as possible must be a priority," Cassidy said in the release.

During congressional debate over the flood insurance legislation — and even after it passed — Landrieu and Cassidy jockeyed for credit, holding press conferences, firing off press releases and doing national and local interviews.

"It came to pass,'' Bernie Pinsonat, a Louisiana pollster, said of the legislation. "(But) it ended up being shared credit.''

Cassidy says he "spearheaded the effort'' and played a critical role in the revised measure that eventually became law.

"Together with members of the House from across the country, I passed flood insurance legislation that caps premium increases, restores grandfathered rates and provides refunds for homeowners who overpaid on their premiums,'' Cassidy said in an e-mail. "Unlike the temporary Senate version, these are permanent reforms that the Senate passed only after we took the lead in the House. We need Senators who do more than just send press releases.''

In May, Cassidy, co-chairman of the Congressional Home Protection Caucus, held a meeting with Federal Emergency Management Agency officials to discuss implementation of the flood insurance law. He invited the press.

Cassidy's supporters are making sure Landrieu "doesn't get one up on them,'' Pinsonat said.

"Whatever happens on flood insurance Cassidy has to be able to say, 'Me too, me too,' " he said

Stockley said Cassidy may use his work on the flood insurance bill to show he's willing to break ranks with GOP leaders on issues important to Louisiana. Some Republican leaders had opposed the legislation, saying the premium increases were needed to move the flood insurance program, which is $24 billion in debt, closer to solvency.

Landrieu says the idea for a bill to address flood insurance premiums started in the Senate, where she helped organize a bipartisan group of lawmakers on the issue.

"For 4,500,000 people in Louisiana, it's a pretty big deal,'' Landrieu said.

Landrieu said her subcommittee will hold more hearings on the flood insurance issue, and she will push Congress "to get complete and accurate flood maps done before we engage in trying to rewrite a flood insurance program.''

Republican and Democratic colleagues have praised Landrieu for her work on the bill passed in March. But Pinsonat said Landrieu's efforts didn't help her polling numbers.

"She got zero bump out of that,'' he said.

If the election were held today, Landrieu would lose, he said.

"She's running ads attacking Cassidy now. She's holding hearings,'' Pinsonat said. "She's doing everything she can to get the needle to start back up. The needle is not moving. She's sitting there dead in the water.''

Stockley said the importance of the flood insurance changes may be hard to sell to voters, who either don't understand them or don't care. The issue tends to be somewhat technical and disproportionately affects policyholders in South Louisiana, he said.

"This is not an issue that affects everybody identically across Louisiana," he said. "There's not much more that can be gained from the issue of flood insurance."