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Congressional Daily Record
This section captures a formal floor step rather than a policy debate. It mentions legislation such as Recognizing that Florida's insurance market is gravely stressed by climate risks., committees such as Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, members such as Sheldon Whitehouse.
Official title: Unanimous Consent Request--S. Res. 556 (Executive Calendar)
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July 15, 2026
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Download official Senate Record PDFReturn to issue contextMr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, climate change is real. Simple proposition. Earlier this year, I came to the floor and asked my colleagues if they could all agree on that simple factual proposition. Well, they could not, so I return to the floor in hopes that our Republican colleagues could at least agree to some of the simple truths that make up the larger truth of climate change.
as a consequence. There is really no dispute about that, but Republicans objected.
consequence. There is really no dispute about that either. In fact, they are warming by about 20 zettajoules a year. Nevertheless, Republicans still objected.
So I shifted my focus to economic threats. I asked if we could agree that climate change is driving up the cost of homeowners insurance or that it threatens home values. Very clear propositions demonstrated in real life. But, again, Republicans objected.
become to deny. So let me try a narrower simple truth today: Florida's insurance market is gravely stressed by climate risks. That is it. Can we all agree on that?
increase in severe storms, including hurricanes. This chart tracks billion-dollar climate disasters in the United States between 1980 and today. The pattern is crystal clear. As you can see, these events and their costs are increasing.
hurricanes have caused the most damage—over $1.5 trillion total adding all that up—with an average cost of $23 billion per event.
hardest. Between 2020 and 2024, nine hurricanes hit Florida causing $244 billion in damages in Florida alone. They went on often to create more damage in other States—but $244 billion in Florida.
as a result? First, data I collected as chair of the Senate Budget Committee shows that Florida has, by far, the highest insurance nonrenewal rate in the country—that is the rate at which insurers say to their customer: I am sorry. I know you have been a good customer. We have been insuring you for years, but your property is now so endangered that we can no longer insure you. We are done. You have got to go find new insurance.
Florida: Highest nonrenewal rate in the country.
country—by some estimates, approaching $14,000 per year. Economists expect these costs to continue to rise.
percent in coastal Florida in the next 30 years—the period of a mortgage entered into today. Just do some quick math. If it is $14,000 now, a 300 percent increase, four times as much, you add—call it a $56,000 annual expense to own a home, and you run a present value of that simple math, that all comes off the value of the home.
at risk of insolvency. After catastrophic hurricane losses in recent years, many of the major insurers—including Farmers, Progressive, and AAA—all left the Florida market entirely leaving behind small, local, and less stable insurers. Many of those small, local, and less stable insurers have gone bust when claims come in. This insurance problem creates a mortgage problem in Florida. Banks won't finance a home mortgage unless the home is protected by insurance.
When banks originate mortgages, they often flip them to government-
sponsored entities like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. So, a new problem: Fannie and Freddie will only purchase mortgages which are protected by an insurer and only if that insurer has a requisite financial stability rating. Well, to obtain a financial stability rating, insurers pay a rating agency.
insurance companies there obtain the stability rating required by Fannie and Freddie? Most go to an operation called Demotech. Mark my words, you will hear a lot more about Demotech as this situation worsens. Demotech has rated nearly all of these small, local companies that it covers “A” or above. Well, it turns out these ratings are too good to be true.
rated by Demotech are 30 times more likely—30 times more likely—to become insolvent than those graded by other rating companies. So if Fannie and Freddie were to stop accepting mortgages with a high-risk Demotech-rated insurer, the Florida real estate market would come to a shuddering halt.
Demotech. This is what is left of the traditional ratings, and this is Citizens Property Insurance, which, because it is State-backed, doesn't require ratings. It has its own separate problems.
But this Demotech problem is real. Almost 20 percent of Demotech- rated insurers in Florida have gone insolvent in the last decade—20 percent; 1 in 5, gone. An insolvent insurer is, of course, a disaster for homeowners who have to wait, eventually, to be paid by a State-run organization—the guaranty fund—that takes over for the failed, insolvent insurance.
Well, two problems result from that. One, the delay in paying claims destroys neighborhoods. It is great to get paid by your insurance company when you have a major claim and your house is wrecked, but if the money doesn't come soon, you can't rebuild and the neighborhood doesn't come back. And we see that in Florida now. Two, other Floridians are on the hook for all those claims. The guaranty fund transmits that cost to other Florida policyholders.
of last resort, has a similar backstop when it can't pay claims, but in real life, those levees to prop up Citizens are often going to be uncollectible. There are credible scenarios in which the losses of Citizens Property Insurance exceed its ability to pay claims, and the assessment scheme fails. Those are plausible scenarios.
where it hands off to those same popup, politically connected, Demotech-rated local insurers tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of homeowners. Boom—the homeowner is dumped into an insurance company she has never heard of.
It is a cascade happening. The climate crisis clobbers home values, drives up insurance prices, and causes insurance insolvency in climate- risky areas across the country but nowhere so more than Florida.
This is a crisis for families in Florida. The human stories behind this are heartbreaking, and it is growing into a crisis for all of us. Florida's insurance market is the canary in the American climate risk coal mine. As climate change gets worse and risks spread, other States will find themselves in a similar position—my own, being a coastal State, amongst them.
So can we all agree on this simple truth: that Florida's insurance market is gravely stressed by climate risks?
Mr. President, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be discharged and the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of that proposition, S. Res. 556; further, that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The Senator from Indiana.
Mr. BANKS. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, it is pretty clear that this resolution is an attack on a red State by one of my colleagues from a blue State.
I respect my colleague, but this resolution doesn't pass muster. In fact, we know that the radical, Green New Deal agenda that was wrought on us in this country by the Biden administration raised gas prices in this country to astronomical rates, made life less affordable and more difficult for Americans all over this country. That is why they quickly turned the page on those policies and got rid of Biden and those radical Green New Deal policies and chose President Trump to come back to the White House.
We had really good news this week. Inflation rates came way down— down as much as we have seen it in many years—because of President Trump's policies to uproot Green New Deal policies, passing the Working Families Tax Cut bill that we passed that makes life more affordable for working families all over this the country.
I am not from Florida. Florida is a good State. And I love the State of Rhode Island. I did all of my Navy training there. I respect my colleague. It is ironic with this resolution because 2 percent of Rhode Islanders over the last 5 years have moved to Florida, and they moved to Florida especially after the pandemic—all of the mandates and higher taxes, and they are choosing a State that works, that is attracting them, just like people from all over the coast are moving to Florida because they like Florida, they like lower taxes, and they like the quality of life that Florida offers.
This resolution is just an attack on Florida.
with—to come to the Banking Committee. Let's work on bipartisan solutions and ideas to bring down the cost of living for all Americans. We can do that together. We can find solutions to do that. This resolution doesn't do that.
Mr. President, that is why I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard.
The Senator from Rhode Island.
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I appreciate my fine colleague from Indiana State whose Indiana University teaches the science of climate change. But I would like to say that this is not an attack on Florida; this is a warning to Florida of what is happening, what is already demonstrably beginning to happen as a result of sea level rise, worse hurricanes, and heavier storm bursts. I just want to make sure that characterization is clear. Florida is entitled to be warned about this risk. It is a risk we all share.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.