John Sarbanes: “I support the passage of S. 2238, as amended, and want to urge my colleagues to support this critical legislation which…”

“I support the passage of S. 2238, as amended, and want to urge my colleagues to support this critical legislation which ensures the continuation of the National Flood Insurance Program, which covers over 4.4 million properties around the country. Unless we quickly act to reauthorize this program, it will expire at the end of this month. In addition to extending the National Flood Insurance Program for 5 years, this bill establishes a loss mitigation pilot program to help mitigate flood risks for properties that have been flooded numerous times. This bill has been drafted in a bipartisan manner, and I particularly want to thank Senators Bunning and Shelby for working collaboratively with me to craft this legislation and also for accepting my amendment which makes a number of administrative changes to the National Flood Insurance Program designed to strengthen the program and ensure that flood victims can fairly and adequately recover for flood losses. While Federal flood insurance was created almost 40 years ago to 'provide the necessary funds promptly to assure rehabilitation or restoration of damaged property to pre-flood status or to permit comparable investment elsewhere,' unfortunately, the program is not working as Congress envisioned.”