Political Quotes

“This amendment deals with those properties which have an increased risk because of the issuance of new flood maps. Every time there is an event, of course, whether it is a small event or a huge one, such as Katrina and Rita, there are new flood maps developed over time by FEMA. If a property is a greater risk under those new flood maps, under this underlying bill premiums would go up. I have no objection to that. They should go up. But I do think we need to temper that with a reasonable time period over which to spread out that increase. This underlying bill says that increase would happen all in 2 years. My amendment would change that to mirror the provision in the House bill and would spread that increase over 5 years instead of 2. This is a reasonable, modest measure to make this movement toward fiscal responsibility and actuarial soundness reasonable and manageable by the premium payer. Some of these changes, particularly after an event such as Katrina or Rita, can be quite dramatic. To say that all of that change, all of that premium increase happens over 2 years is going to be a huge, whopping bill that is going to stop a lot of folks from being able to be insured over time. I think this change to have that phased in over 5 years is reasonable.”