Candice S. Miller: “I appreciate the arguments opposed to my amendment. I did not say that we never thought that the lake levels would ever…”

“I appreciate the arguments opposed to my amendment. I did not say that we never thought that the lake levels would ever rise or that we would flood. Obviously, I think there are a lot of factors that go into the lake levels rising. You have factors that are manmade, like the Chicago diversionary canal. You have got the Sault Locks. You have got the St. Laurence Seaway. The biggest factor has nothing to with man, and that is God. God makes the lake levels go up and down, I think. But I would say this: I think this is an issue of financial fairness. I really do believe that. And the brutal reality is that FEMA actually needs more money to pay for all these flood insurance claims that they have had in recent years. Let me just cite this statistic, and let me ask anyone to tell me with a straight face that it is fair and equitable: between 1978 and 2002, there were 10 States that received more in claims than what they paid in policies, in fact, over $1.5 billion more. And the average premium for policyholders in those States was $223. Michigan, on the other hand, paid almost $120 million more into the program than it received back in claims. Yet the average premium for our policyholders was $260. And this is a common element in all of the Great Lakes States, the same States that are paying year after year after year, decade after decade, much more than others. And I think they are being taken advantage of by the flood insurance program.…”