Congress Does the Right Thing, and then Scrambles to Repeal It

I am talking, of course, about the attempts to repeal changes to the federal flood insurance program, so as to stop subsidizing people who choose to live in flood prone regions:

Setting aside objections from the White House and fiscal watchdogs, a bipartisan Senate majority voted Thursday to delay rate increases in federal flood insurance for coastal property owners from Maine to California.

The 67 to 32 vote reflected mounting political opposition to big insurance hikes that Congress passed in 2012 to prop up the nation’s nearly bankrupt flood insurance program. The bill, which faces an uncertain outcome in the House, would delay the increases for up to four years for hundreds of thousands of property owners across the country, including tens of thousands in Massachusetts.

The measure also postpones the adoption of a new set of official flood maps for coastal regions, which would have dramatically expanded areas designated as prone to floods and required thousands more to obtain costly insurance. In Boston alone, the number of properties encompassed in the new maps would rise from 8,000 to 18,000.

Floods are getting worse because of anthropogenic climate change, and the original maps were too conservative, and the rates were never appropriate to the level of risk.

The solution to ameliorating damage from flooding is not to pay people to live there.