Austin Scott: “It baffles me when, on this floor, we, who are Members of the House of Representatives, so quickly, so easily want to…”

“It baffles me when, on this floor, we, who are Members of the House of Representatives, so quickly, so easily want to abdicate our responsibilities to the Senate. No wonder the Senate does what it does. Well, Mr. Speaker, we're not going to abdicate our responsibilities to the Senate. The Founders of this Constitution and this country dedicated two Houses, one, the Senate, that runs every 6 years, and they made a distinct decision to have the Members of the House of Representatives run every other year because the power of the House closest to the people is that House that the people look to to be most responsive to the day-to-day delicacies of their needs. This is what we're doing here. And the day-to-day delicacies says we've got to pass the most significant, the most meaningful terrorism risk insurance program possible. There's no greater threat we face. My colleagues on the other side have said, well, why can't the private sector do this? The private sector has come to us. We don't know how catastrophic these events may be. But one thing is for certain, Mr. Speaker, we must not allow the terrorists to shut down and destroy our economy. And unless we have this backstop, the insurers have said they cannot rebuild.”