Political Quotes

“I thank Mr. Larson for yielding and, again, for offering this amendment, which has been part of a number of initiatives that we have worked on jointly together to deal with this issue. Again, for the record, just to clarify what is going on here, a concrete quarry up in north central Connecticut, which had been mining aggregate for foundations in homes, it turned out there was a material called pyrrhotite, which is an iron sulfide material that, over time, when it is exposed to moisture, rusts and cracks in a sickening fashion and results in the total collapse of home foundations. The estimate is as high as 19,000 homes have had foundations using material from this quarry. As the gentleman pointed out, this has also occurred in western Massachusetts. It goes as far north, actually, as Three Rivers, Quebec, because it is a strain of pyrrhotite that runs from Canada down through New England. This picture shows vividly the damage caused to a home in Coventry, Connecticut, where the repairs require you to lift the house, clean out the old foundation, pour a new foundation, and, again, lower the house back. It costs roughly about $200,000. We were able to secure a tax ruling from the Treasury Department that allows individuals like this homeowner in the picture to basically deduct those losses, which, again, is some relief. Frankly, there is more that we need to bring to the table.…”