Political Quotes

“Madam President, first, I also want to say to the Senator from California and the Senator from Louisiana, job well done. The WRDA bill is a very good bill, and it will help both the port of New York City--one of the great ports of the world--as well as our Great Lakes ports, which are having their own troubles in terms of dredging. But there was an extreme disappointment in the bill--no fault of my colleague from California. I am extremely disappointed at the objection some of my colleagues raised to even allowing a vote on the Landrieu amendment to the WRDA bill, and I, along with Senator Landrieu and others, will keep fighting until this commonsense amendment passes. I am speaking of amendment No. 888. I was proud to cosponsor it. Very simply, it would delay for 5 years any premium increases resulting from revised flood maps. The purpose of the amendment was to provide FEMA enough time to complete the study it was required to complete over a month ago on the affordability of increased premiums. Senator Toomey is right that we passed a flood insurance reauthorization bill just 10 months ago, but it was always the intent-- and many of us worked hard on that--under Biggert-Waters that FEMA would conduct an affordability study before higher premiums would go into effect. That way Congress could review the findings and recommendations and address important issues relating to affordability and neighborhood sustainability.…”