Rick Lazio: “I believe deeply that this demonstration program needs to be extended. I think even if we were to come to an agreement…”

“I believe deeply that this demonstration program needs to be extended. I think even if we were to come to an agreement tomorrow with the Senate, and I think the chairman of the full panel has explained what our position is, we would still need, because of regulations and rules, there would be a time between 12 and 18 months before we would get an actual program in effect, in which we would need this extension. I hear the gentleman from Massachusetts has no intention of going along with that, and these other reforms and extensions are so important at this point. We cannot allow the flood insurance program to lapse, we cannot allow these extenders to lapse, and we need to protect seniors to the point where I am wondering if I made a unanimous consent request to delete the sections that are offensive to the gentleman from Massachusetts, if that would win his support of the rest of the provisions of this measure?”