Political Quotes

“this amendment is basic and straightforward. This amendment would increase the coverage limits for flood policies under the National Flood Insurance Program. Why do we need to do that? For a very basic reason. Those dollar limits have not been changed in 14 years. They haven't been changed at all, adjusted for inflation or anything else, since 1994. So it is way past overdue to update these coverage limits in a reasonable way. This Vitter amendment 4722 would do just that. But, in fact, it wouldn't even fully take into account inflation since 1994. It would fall a little short of that. We chose the increases because my increases in amendment 4722 are exactly what the House of Representatives has already passed, merely updating those limits to take into account most but not even all of inflation since they were last set in 1994. I share with the chairman and ranking member the goal of making this program more fiscally sound, more actuarially sound. But we will completely frustrate that goal if we have a program with extremely low coverage limits and people can't buy the coverage they need. What will happen if we allow that? More and more storms will hit, and people who have flood insurance coverage will not have nearly enough coverage, so there will be pressure--every event, every storm--to come to Congress for emergency measures above and beyond the flood insurance program. That isn't a path to fiscal soundness.”