I find it puzzling, after working so hard to pass a law that specifically caps rate increases and encourages FEMA to strive to keep flood insurance affordable, that we are still hearing about outrageous increases that threaten to do more…

It is my goal to make sure we do not have any more Claudettes or Ricks slipping through the cracks.

But I am committed, as you all know, as a subcommittee chair of the committee that funds the flood maps, to continue to hold these hearings regularly in hopes that we can have accurate flood maps prior to 2017 when this program has to be…

I am going to hold FEMA accountable for that.

Our work is not over until we build a better plan, and hopefully, we will lay some Congressional record to do that today.

After 2 years of arduous work and steadfast determination by a broad coalition of individuals, business groups, and community leaders, the President signed into law championed by many of us, but led by Senator Menendez, the Homeowners…

I hope this spirit of bipartisanship will prove to be a catalyst for enactment of future bipartisan legislation.

A lot of that is in South Mississippi. Senator Cochran knows this.

The need, the stakes for accurate and reliable flood maps could not be greater.

This isn't just a problem for the 7 percent or the 450 counties, it is not just coastal issue, it is an interior issue, and it is a national issue.

We also removed the property sales trigger, which had frozen real estate markets and threatened to rob many middle-class families.

Alaska will take up half of the geographic space of the lower 48, and it deserves its own map.

What it shows me is that we have a lot of work to do.

The people on the inside of the levee should have much lower rates with that levee built than without that levee.

the reason we tend to want not to build in velocity zones is because that is the most vulnerable area to any type of flooding.

I am sorry that we have left out Alaska and Hawaii. I am sorry, Senator Murkowski. We will fix that.

We have to make decisions about where we build going forward. This is not a sustainable risk we can continue to do with no change.

I am happy to see that it has been established.