Porter Goss: “I rise today because this is still a controversial matter, despite great progress at compromise. I would rather work…”

“I rise today because this is still a controversial matter, despite great progress at compromise. I would rather work this out on the floor of the House better before we sent it over to a conference negotiation. It is for that reason I do not think we should be considering this under the suspension procedure. I would like to send this up to the Committee on Rules and get a modified amendment, because as good a job as the gentleman from Massachusetts, the gentleman from California, the gentleman from Nebraska, the gentleman from Florida, and the gentleman from Louisiana have done, there are still some very serious problems with this legislation. They affect private property rights, they affect litigation, they certainly are unfunded mandates on communities, and the erosion concept has not been taken out of here. I am reminded of the last time the House addressed this issue. We had overwhelming support for this reform of this program reauthorization, a giant vote. I think it was more than 300 in favor of it. Then we ran into a firestorm of protest across America because we had not done our work well, and they shot it down in the Senate and saved our bacon. Let us not do that again. I rise today as a former mayor and county commissioner who has had real life experience with the National Flood Insurance Program.”