Political Quotes

“I thank the Senator from Louisiana for inquiring. I can say that Federal flood insurance that is not affordable is not Federal flood insurance. To go from a position that one is paying rates at one level and all of a sudden go to a higher position, people are completely priced out of the market and all of the ancillary things that go with it because people can't sell their homes. When one puts that ripple effect through the entire economy, especially in a State such as mine that has more coastline than any State save for Alaska and where we have 40 percent of all the flood insurance policies. I dealt with this, I would say to the Senator from Louisiana, because in my former life I was the elected insurance commissioner of Florida. Fortunately, I had no jurisdiction over the Federal Flood Insurance Program, but other insurance companies that offered it privately or supplemented the Federal flood insurance we did have jurisdiction to regulate. People cannot build a house--if they are going to a bank to get a mortgage--unless they have flood insurance. Now that the maps, as the Senator has pointed out, have been expanded showing there are a lot more areas that are inundated by water, by flood, at times of the year, then this becomes, for the engine of commerce, a critical component. One can't be charging one price and suddenly say we are going to be charging people four times as much. Let us have a little common sense.…”