Political Quotes

“I rise in support of the legislation we are about to vote on that will provide an additional $9.7 billion to the National Flood Insurance Program. Without these funds, the program would have run out of money next week, leaving over 100,000 victims of Hurricane Sandy in the lurch. I would like to thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for allowing this vote to go forward. They have acted honorably. The good news is the House passed this bill this morning and the Senate will pass it in a few minutes. With the passage of this bill, hurricane victims from Staten Island to east Long Island, as well as in New Jersey, can rest assured their flood insurance will have enough money to pay out claims. We had no choice but to pass this provision because the Federal Government is obligated to reimburse when people have floods if they have paid in their flood insurance. While this bill is important, it is something we were almost obligated to do, and we should not have parades down the street because this bill has passed. The major work of helping the victims of Sandy is still ahead of us. The bad news is we even had to go through this dog-and-pony show in the first place. Last month, the Senate passed a good, strong bill to help all victims of Hurricane Sandy, and the House simply could have taken it up and passed it. In fact, they promised to vote on a similar provision before the last Congress ended. Unfortunately, this changed at the last moment.…”