Richard Shelby

The SEC also recently restructured its enforcement and compliance programs to address some of the systemic problems.

The Dodd-Frank Act gave the Securities and Exchange Commission a long list of rules to promulgate.

Both organizations have played an important role in the aftermath of the financial crisis and will continue to do so.

Although the flood program expires in a few months, I am confident that the Committee can successfully work together to, once again, pass bipartisan legislation.

We know that most people that need flood insurance do not have it. We must explore ways to change that.

Accordingly, it is my hope that this year we can pass a long-term extension of the flood program that includes the reforms needed to make the program 'actuarially sound.'

The severity of this year's weather highlights the need for the National Flood Insurance Program to be reauthorized and placed on a sustainable path.

I have been around politics for 40 years. You are absolutely right. Watch the promises.

I totally agree with that. Either you buy it or you get no Federal assistance.

That would be my goal.

Now, if you are not going to charge for the risk, who is going to be charged for the risk?

You state that requiring communities with a flood control structure to first purchase flood insurance raises, quote, 'real and powerful equity and fairness issues.'

Is part of the problem... the lack of information that they are really in a floodplain area or marginal area?

What happened to the mapping program that was going to go on just a few years ago and everybody was talking about?

If they were doing their job, they would not have a 50 percent insurance program.

In the Flood Insurance Program as we currently have, and we keep kicking the can down the road, it is basically, one, broken, and it is very flawed, is it not?

Why should the American taxpayers subsidize these policies, or risk, for people who, a lot of them have second, third homes, knowing that they are in a risk area.

Discuss how the newly grandfathered category works. Is it a permanent category?

It is my understanding that FEMA has created a new category of what you call grandfathered categories for homes that have been mapped into riskier areas.

Where are we in our mapping program, roughly, as to where we were, say, four or 5 years ago?

And how do we change the distribution of the risk? Do we do that by mapping and by identifying and broadening the amount of money coming in? How do we do that?

But if we do not get--first, define what actuarially sound means, and get to this, it seems to me that every time there is a catastrophic event and you are hit with everything, that it is leading the fund toward bankruptcy rather than…

Updated maps are important for two reasons: first, they warn developers and homeowners about the risk of developing or living in a floodplain; second, they ensure that participants are paying fair prices for flood coverage.

I believe we must ensure that the program requires wealthy participants to pay the full cost of their insurance.

The GAO recommended that the write-your-own program have more transparency and accountability.