Political Quotes

“As we watch the horrific scenes of destruction from Hurricane Harvey and Irma, I must say that I have been taken back in time. I came to Congress 20 years ago in the aftermath of serious flooding in my hometown of Portland, Oregon. I was Portland's Commissioner of Public Works at the time, and we had to scramble to try and prevent flood damage into our central city. Since that time, I have spent a great deal of time and energy focusing on what we can do to solve problems of repetitive flooding, having Federal policies in place that makes it less likely that people will be in harm's way. Sadly, over the course of over 20 years, we are very slow to learn these messages. First and foremost, we continue to provide payments to properties that are repeatedly flooded. When we started over 15 years ago on a program for reforming the flood insurance program, one of the best examples that we used for the need for reform was a home in suburban Houston that had flood insurance payments 17 times in less than 20 years. The total was over $1 million for a piece of property that was less than $120,000 in value. We would have been far better off buying it at a generous price and returning it to its natural state, saving the taxpayers money and minimizing future flood damage.…”