FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FEBRUARY 11, 2014
#STOPTHEMADNESS: Will Koch Brothers Group AFP Defend Efforts To Kill Bipartisan Flood Insurance Reform At Tonight’s Event?
AFP Instructed Lawmakers To “Preserve The Crux” Of Biggert-Waters & Is Doubling Down On Its Efforts To Prevent Flood Insurance Reform
BATON ROUGE – The Koch brothers-backed group Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is lobbying against flood insurance reform legislation that will help nearly half a million Louisiana homeowners, and tonight the secretly funded group will launch a #STOPTHEMADNESS tour to deny access to health insurance to nearly 250,000 uninsured Louisianians.
“Not only is AFP trying to prevent Louisiana families from accessing affordable health insurance, but the group is also trying to kill the state’s top legislative priority — bipartisan flood insurance reform, which has unanimous support from our Congressional delegation,” said Louisiana Democratic Party Executive Director Stephen Handwerk. “If AFP really wants to ‘stop the madness,’ the secretly funded group backed by the billionaire Koch brothers will admit that their policy agenda would hurt Louisiana and instead embrace the Senate’s bipartisan flood insurance reform legislation to prevent massive flood insurance rate hikes from hurting half a million Louisianians.”
While Sen. Landrieu was working with Sen. David Vitter to lead Senate passage of the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act, AFP was pressuring lawmakers to kill the bill. In a letter to Congress, AFP instructed lawmakers to back an amendment by Sen. Pat Toomey because it would “preserve the crux” of Biggert-Waters, which will result in crippling insurance rate hikes for almost 500,000 policyholders in Louisiana. In a statement to the Times-Picayunethis past Friday, an AFP spokesperson reiterated the group’s opposition to passing the Senate’s flood insurance bill.
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