National Flood Insurance Program Competition and Extension Act of 2018

Floor Speech

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Ms. MAXINE WATERS of California.

Mr. Speaker, allow me to try and explain exactly what is happening with this proposal by my chairman, Mr. Hensarling. Mr. Hensarling came to me and indicated that he wanted to add language to the reauthorization, the short-term reauthorization of the flood insurance program.

I explained to him that I had an agreement with Mr. Scalise, and our agreement was that this would be a short-term reauthorization that was clean; that it would be added to the continuing resolution; and that we would see to it that the flood insurance program would not lapse.

So Mr. Hensarling went to Mr. Scalise and Mr. Scalise agreed to it and, because he agreed to it, Mr. Hensarling moved forward.

Following that, staff members pointed out that if the language is added that Mr. Hensarling would like to add, it was going to create a problem. It was going to create a confrontation; that we would endanger the ability to have short-term reauthorization and, if we do that, homeowners are going to be disadvantaged because they would not have access to the insurance that they need to satisfy the mortgages that they were trying to get.

So we have had a long discussion and a long debate about what the Senate is going to do and, of course, our understanding now is that the Senate will not support the language that is going to be put in that is headed by Mr. Hensarling; and this was going to endanger the ability for us to get the short-term reauthorization.

So, given all of that, and understanding all of that, yes, I made an agreement with Mr. Hensarling that, if Mr. Scalise agreed, that I would agree, but I want--and I have said to Mr. Hensarling, as we had a long discussion on the floor with some of the leadership, et cetera, that one of the things we want is, we want this short-term reauthorization until May, until we can get to work on long-term reauthorization for the National Flood Insurance Program.

Yes, Mr. Hensarling is correct that we do have the possibility now for private insurers who write insurance for the national flood insurance, to do both, to be able to write insurance. But we do know that even if they are able to do it now, we are not saying that we should do anything to codify that in existing law. They are saying you should not do anything to codify that in existing law, simply because it endangers the ability for the support for the National Flood Insurance Program to be reauthorized through the short-term.

So it is complicated and it presents a dilemma for everybody. But in the final analysis, no matter what, the real question becomes: Is it important for a short-term reauthorization of the national flood insurance; or do we allow it to get caught up in these agreements so that we don't have it, and then the real estate market is going to go crazy; homeowners who are trying to purchase insurance, because they can't get a mortgage without it, all of this will be absolutely undermined. And that is the essence of what is going on.

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