Political Quotes

“Madam President, my amendment would require the Federal Emergency Management Agency--FEMA--to study and report on the advisability of establishing voluntary community-based flood insurance policies under the National Flood Insurance Program--NFIP. The Government Accountability Office would be required to review and comment on FEMA's study. The study will help answer important questions about how such voluntary community-based policies could be implemented within the National Flood Insurance Program. It does not commit FEMA, the Congress, or local communities to take any action. It simply calls for fact-finding and analysis that could provide the basis for improvements to the flood insurance program. The idea of community-based flood insurance is to assess the risk for all properties within a community and collect premiums from the community rather than from individual property owners. By purchasing insurance at the community level, willing local governments--and I emphasize willing and voluntary--may be able to spread the cost of premiums equitably among property owners. In addition, they may be able to increase participation in the flood insurance program, including among property owners who are within the 100-year flood plain but who are not subject to the mandatory purchase requirement because they do not carry a federally backed mortgage. Expanding participation would ensure that all properties in the flood plain have coverage from risk.…”