During a Homeland Security Committee hearing on July 16, Representative Troy Carter (D-LA) moved that the Committee subpoena Elizabeth Asche, Assistant Administrator of the Federal Insurance Directorate at FEMA “to provide this committee with the details the agency has been withholding from Congress.”  Rep. Carter made this motion pursuant to pursuant to clause 2(k)(6) of House Rule 11, which allows for subpoenaing additional witnesses during committee hearings.  Ultimately, the motion failed.

As part of his remarks, Rep. Carter entered into the record research from CSFI and a letter from the entire Louisiana delegation in 2022 demanding information on how public mitigation projects have impacted rates in Louisiana.

However, Rep. Carter affirmed that “Louisiana is not alone in this issue.. There are 17 states with higher average rates than Louisiana. Rates will increase by over 50% in 41 states.”

Rep. Carter also established that “This is not a partisan issue, I have been highly critical of Risk Rating 2.0 throughout the Biden administration, when even former DHS Secretary Mayorkas acknowledged that Risk Rating 2.0 is flawed. Yet, during both Biden and Trump administrations, FEMA continued to push forward without correcting course, listening to Congress, or properly engaging the people most affected by these changes.”

In summary, Rep. Carter concluded, “The bottom line is this: we need a flood insurance system that protects, not penalizes, American families. It should be grounded in science, equity, and economic reality—but also in accountability and transparency. Congress must have a role in shaping the future of the NFIP, and our constituents deserve to know how decisions impacting their homes and livelihoods are being made.  I urge my colleagues to support bipartisan common sense legislative efforts that will bring oversight, affordability, and fairness back to the National Flood Insurance Program—because flood risk isn’t going away, and neither should our responsibility to address it. However, for Congress to act on this issue, we need details and data to determine the impact of Risk Rating 2.0, the affordability burden on the NFIP, and the optimal design of an affordability program. But FEMA continues to deny years of congressional requests for its Risk Rating 2.0 methodology.”