Political Quotes

“I rise today to thank my colleagues on the transportation conference for including the National Flood Insurance Program reauthorization and for removing the controversial residual risk provision. That provision was a real concern to me and more than a dozen cities and counties in California. It would have required nearly 1 million residents in my State to purchase flood insurance even though they live behind fully functioning levees that meet or exceed Federal safety standards. That provision alone could have quadrupled the number of homeowners in my State who have to buy flood insurance. The flood insurance bill called this low-level risk behind levees ``residual risk.'' It is the risk left over after a levee has been built--the risk of levee failure, in essence. These are levees that homeowners funded with their own tax dollars, and the provision would have forced them to spend even more money. That is just not good policy. And I was proud to add my voice to that of the Senator from Arkansas in strong opposition to including it in the bill. The bottom line is this: Until the residual risk provision was removed, the National Flood Insurance Program reauthorization would have had a devastating effect on communities in California and across the Nation. Even homeowners in communities who maintain their levees to Federal safety standards with their own tax dollars would have been forced to pay for Federal flood insurance.…”