Bill Nelson: “this is an amendment to recognize what we have been discussing on this floor earlier: that the big one is coming. The…”

“this is an amendment to recognize what we have been discussing on this floor earlier: that the big one is coming. The big one is either a category 5 hurricane that is hitting an urbanized area of the coast, of which there is some loss of $50 billion of insurance losses in wind losses, or it is an 8.5 earthquake on the Richter scale that hits downtown San Francisco or downtown Memphis--either one of which no one State could withstand that kind of economic loss. There is no one insurance company that can withstand that economic loss. It is clear that the package of bills Senator Martinez and I--and he, by the way, is a cosponsor of this amendment--the package of bills we have filed to address the plethora of subjects having to do with catastrophic risk--a national catastrophe fund is one of those bills. That is not going to pass. The White House opposes it. But what could pass is what has already passed the House of Representatives and is down here and is the essence of this amendment; that is, it sets up two things.”