Political Quotes

“Madam President, I rise to talk about another vital program we must reauthorize and continue before it expires; that is, the National Flood Insurance Program. Right now, that is due to completely expire at the end of May. So I wanted to bring this to everyone's attention, particularly that of the majority leader, so we take this up in time--as soon as possible--and put it in line absolutely as soon as possible so this can be extended and there will be no interruption. This is an important program for the country. It provides vital flood insurance for millions of Americans. Many properties cannot have a real estate closing on them. They cannot be transferred without that important flood insurance. It is particularly important in my home State of Louisiana, where the risks of flooding--coastal and otherwise--are even greater than the national average. Unfortunately, we have been on a path the last few years of just barely hobbling along, using a bandaid approach to extend this necessary program just a little bit at a time. This got to its worst state in 2010, when we not only extended it just a little bit at a time, but we actually allowed it to lapse, to expire, for several days at a time on four different occasions, for a total of 53 days. What happened? Each of those times the program expired, many real estate closings--tens of thousands of real estate closings around the country--came to a screeching halt. They were cancelled. They were put off.…”