Washington, D.C.–Today, the House overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan plan that will provide immediate relief to homeowners coping with dramatically increasing flood insurance rates.

"For the past five months we have been meeting with homeowners, business owners, realtors and others and heard their stories of seeing their flood insurance rates skyrocket," said Rep. McKinley. "We began working to fix their problems and provide relief for people. This plan will do just that."

"This proposal will not add to the debt and makes permanent reforms," added McKinley. "Most importantly it will end extreme flood insurance rate increases and help communities like Wheeling, New Martinsville and Fairmont."

"We're pleased the House Leadership listened to our concerns and cleared the way for a vote to ease flood insurance rate hikes currently facing thousands of West Virginians," said Rep. McKinley. "Now we're hopeful this legislation will pass the Senate quickly and immediately give homeowners the relief they need."

The bill makes necessary changes to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), including:

•Permanently repealing the move to full-risk rates when a home is sold;

•Refunding premiums for people who purchased a home between July 2012 and October 2013;

•Establishing an 18% per property annual rate increase limit;

•Protecting existing properties from premium increases when an area is remapped. FEMA is also responsible for notifying all parties involved when the remapping takes place;

•Creating an annual surcharge on all policies covered under NFIP–$25 for primary homes and $250 for non-residential property and secondary homes; and

•Allocating enough funding for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to complete the Affordability Study as mandated in the Biggert-Waters Act.