Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act was passed in order to make the flood insurance program both actuarially sound and functionally sound. And we hope that it is on track to make it actuarially sound, but it is not functionally sound, so this attempts to address this. What this bill would do is that section 207--and only 207--would not allow it to be implemented for 1 year. After that, it would begin to be implemented. Let me first say that the CBO has scored this as zero, and it has no impact upon the Federal Treasury. The reason to do this, though, is that FEMA does not yet have the methodology by which to implement this program. Indeed, there was a GAO report from 2008 which shows that FEMA's rate-setting process warrants attention. As it turns out, they haven't updated it since 2008. So their over 20-year methodology still does not apply. As it turns out, families are being terribly affected. There's one family in Louisiana which has never flooded and yet has a 6,000 percent increase in their premium. Clearly, this has grave implications for this family, but, as it turns out, it has turned their whole real estate market upside down. People can't build and people can't sell. There is an uncertainty there created by the implementation of this particular section. Let me emphasize that this is only section 207. All other sections continue, and the CBO score is zero.…”