AG Jeff Landry leads
multi-parish and multi-state legal effort to protect homeowners and small
businesses.
NEW ORLEANS, LA – Fighting for
families and homeowners faced with bankruptcy or foreclosure due to the rising
costs of flood insurance, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry is filing a
lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA), and the Federal Insurance and Mitigation
Administration.
“Throughout Louisiana and many
other states, homeowners and small businesses are struggling to afford flood
insurance. The rising costs are directly attributable to federal government bureaucrats
taking something that has worked for decades, shrouding it in mystery, and then
making it worse,” said Attorney General Landry. “Thanks to FEMA’s Risk Rating
2.0, flood insurance policies have become their own natural
disaster with some premiums increasing tenfold for policyholders. We believe
there are legal deficiencies in these poor decisions, and we intend to hold
these bureaucrats accountable”
At a press conference this
morning (available to view here)
– Attorney General Landry was joined by local and state leaders legally
challenging FEMA’s new formula which will force people to drop their flood
insurance coverage or, worse, surrender their homes to the banks and
close their businesses forever.
“While the great Nash Roberts
could not always predict which direction a hurricane would take, FEMA’s new
model somehow claims to predict the future of flooding in areas that have never
flooded before,” added Attorney General Landry. “This type of prophecy cannot
even be found in Jackson Square! Yet, the DC theorists are calling it; and they
are completely disrupting the housing market and the economy across our State
and our Nation.”
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A brief overview of the lawsuit
may be found below.
Joining the State of Louisiana
in this litigation – being filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District
of Louisiana – are the State of Florida, the State of Idaho, the State of
Kentucky, the State of Mississippi, the State of Montana, the State of North
Dakota, the State of South Carolina, the State of Texas, the State of Virginia,
Acadia Parish, Ascension Parish, Assumption Parish, Avoyelles Parish, Bossier
Parish, Caldwell Parish, Cameron Parish, Catahoula Parish, Claiborne Parish,
Concordia Parish, East Baton Rouge Parish, East Feliciana Parish, Evangeline Parish,
Franklin Parish, Grant Parish, Iberville Parish, Jackson Parish, Jefferson
Parish, Jefferson Davis Parish, Lafayette Parish, Lafourche Parish, Livingston
Parish, Madison Parish, Orleans Parish, Plaquemines Parish, St. Bernard Parish,
St. Charles Parish, St. Helena Parish, St. James Parish, St. John the Baptist
Parish, St. Landry Parish, St. Mary Parish, St. Tammany Parish, Tangipahoa
Parish, Tensas Parish, Terrebonne Parish, Vermilion Parish, Vernon Parish,
Washington Parish, Webster Parish, West Baton Rouge Parish, West Feliciana
Parish, Winn Parish, Bossier Levee District, Fifth Louisiana Levee District,
Grand Isle Independent Levee District, Lafourche Basin Levee District, North
Lafourche Conservation Levee and Drainage District, Ponchartrain Levee
District, Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority – East, Southeast
Louisiana Flood Protection Authority – West, South Lafourche Levee District,
St. Mary Levee District, St. Tammany Levee District, East Ascension
Consolidated Gravity Drainage District No. 1, City of New Iberia, Town of Jean
Lafitte, Town of Grand Isle, and Association of Levee Boards of Louisiana.