[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 21 (Friday, February 17, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E185-E186]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 NATIONAL FLOOD INSURANCE PROGRAM ENHANCED BORROWING AUTHORITY ACT OF 
                                  2006

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                            HON. GENE GREEN

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 8, 2006

  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, Congress should act to increase 
the borrowing authority for the National Flood Insurance Program to 
honor the debt incurred by the United States.
  If we do not act, people who have paid their flood insurance premiums 
will not receive their

[[Page E186]]

claims for their flood damage. No one wants to live in a nation that 
does not honor its debts.
  In addition, I am concerned that Congress is reacting to the 
unprecedented flooding damage of 2005 by blaming the victims and 
innocent parties.
  Federally backed flood insurance is necessary because the private 
sector will not supply this product since the damages are too 
concentrated geographically and chronologically for the risk to be 
sufficiently spread by private firms.
  We recently passed a Federal flood insurance reform bill in 2003 and 
many of those provisions have not come into force, so I think it is 
premature to require Congress to approve more ``reforms'' before 
honest, premium paying policy holders are allowed to receive their 
payments.
  The Katrina disaster was a tragedy, because the mass New Orleans 
flooding was probably preventable; if the levees had been built and 
maintained as they should have been.
  Now my constituents in Houston, who do not live below sea level and 
do not live on the ocean coastline, will have to pay the price.
  There are over 120,000 families in the 100-year floodplain who are 
required to have flood insurance. In Harris County we have updated our 
maps using airborne infrared radar, so they are accurate. There are 
another 155,000 families in the 500-year floodplain.
  These people did not develop irresponsibly, in fact many of them 
didn't move into the floodplain, but the floodplain moved to them. 
Subsidence and later development has expanded floodplains and put 
innocent homeowners in the floodplain.
  We should not blame these people for geographic factors beyond their 
control. Reforms of the NFIP should focus instead new development in 
floodplains, eliminating flood insurance for beach houses, and ensuring 
that the program keeps its commitments to its policy holders.
  If we greatly increase premiums or expand the number of people 
required to have flood insurance, we should take into account the shock 
this can have on low-income families, and consider my legislation, H.R. 
103, to offer 50 percent discounts for the first 5 years to low-income 
homeowners who suddenly have to pay premiums after a floodplain is 
redrawn to include them.

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