Absolutely. I appreciate the point the Senator is accentuating. When the Senator says this has not gotten enough attention, he is absolutely right. The House has refused to have a budget resolution pursued--a continuing resolution that…

I appreciate the opportunity to express my feelings this evening. Quite frankly, I was one of the optimists in this body. Many of my colleagues have been saying the determination to run our economy over a cliff is so powerful, we are going…

I yield 10 minutes of proponent time to Senator Sanders. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Vermont.

I rise today to address some of the challenges we face here on September 26. The significance of that date is it is only 4 days before September 30, the close of the financial year, and October 1, the following day, starts a new financial…

I will wrap up. Anywhere you look in America, you see problems for public safety, for public education, for college education, for living-wage jobs. These are the pillars of success of the middle class. Let's focus on those problems and do…

I ask unanimous consent to speak for an additional minute. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Thank you, Greg, for coming. He brings extensive experience as an engineer and general manager.

Those people need to be extended--have the subsidized rates extended to them for a longer period of time.

And so we are creating something where homeowners who have built up equity over their lifetimes, maybe they have owned the home 30 years, are seeing that equity devastated and essentially given away to the advantage of those who are well…

So, in short, the folks who live on a stream in Oregon are not subsidizing a hurricane zone on the Atlantic coast.

Am I correct in believing that if a family has to pay $1,000 more a year in flood insurance, one of the costs, if you will, that is essentially equivalent to dropping the value of the home $20,000 since $1,000 at 5 percent pays for a…

Is it upon a 1-year renewal, they get a 1-year policy, then upon renewal of that policy, their rates will go to the unsubsidized?

I really think that FEMA needs to have an ombudsman function.

So are you basically saying we are going to have perhaps hundreds of thousands of new homeowners who are going to have deep shock when they receive a notice saying that their insurance is going to go up?

Absolutely. I really appreciate your testimony on that topic when you talked about the 25-percent loss ratio.

I thank very much my Vice Chair, Senator Heller, for being very supportive of holding this hearing.

I am very concerned that the unaffordability of flood insurance will cause people to drop their flood insurance.

Chairman Merkley. So I would toss out the idea that I will be happy to follow up with subsequent to this hearing...

I thank my senior colleague from Oregon. I appreciate very much his calling up this amendment and for his leadership on energy, and specifically energy efficiency. I would also like to compliment my colleagues from Ohio and New Hampshire…

I ask unanimous consent that my intern, Donnie Turner, have privileges of the floor for the balance of the day. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

I was proud to help in that policy for our Nation.

If we don't make things in America, we will not have a middle class in America.

I want to highlight the importance of coalitions of labor, community, environment, and government, such as the Emerald Cities Collaborative.

We need policy that insures that rate payer dollars can mingle effectively with public dollars.

I would like to close by thanking U.S. Senator Merkley and this Subcommittee for the opportunity to share my story.