Sean Duffy: “I thank the chairman for yielding and for his great work as the chairman of the Financial Services Committee and on…”

“I thank the chairman for yielding and for his great work as the chairman of the Financial Services Committee and on flood insurance reform. There are a lot of things we could talk about today in regard to flood insurance: We could talk about the fact that repetitive loss properties make up 2 percent of all the policies but account for 25 percent of all of the claims. We could talk about the fact that the NFIP is $30 billion in debt, and that is after last year when we forgave $16 billion in debt. Again, we forgave $16 billion. We are still $25 billion in debt and actually racked up $10 billion of new debt in this program over the last year. I have got to tell you I am frustrated. We passed a bipartisan bill in this Chamber. We actively and aggressively negotiated it. This is a big issue for families back home, for constituents of our Members. We have listened to them. We heard them. We modified, we tweaked a bill, and we passed it--and the Senate won't take it up. Mr. Hensarling and I have worked across the aisle with Members not just in the Democratic Party, but also in the Senate. I have come to the opinion that there are very powerful players in this Chamber and in the Chamber next door that don't want anything done with flood insurance. It is a sick and broken program that goes deeper and deeper in debt, that incentivizes people to build in dangerous places. And they say: No, no, no. We don't want any reform. Let's march on with a program that doesn't work.…”