Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I am back again to try to keep the National Flood Insurance Program from expiring.
I will be the first to concede that America needs a national flood insurance program that looks like we designed it on purpose. What we have now does not look like that. To call it imperfect is an understatement. But the only thing worse than having what we have right now is to not have a national flood insurance program at all.
The fact of the matter is, for all practical purposes, people who are at risk for flooding cannot buy flood insurance from the private markets, which means they can't buy a home, which means their mortgages would be foreclosed upon. That is why we have a National Flood Insurance Program.
Should we improve it? Yes. I have been trying for 7 years. We need to keep trying. But we are not going to get it done over the next couple of days.
I believe government is going to shut down tomorrow--or at least Saturday, rather. I hope not, but I believe it is. And if it does, the National Flood Insurance Program will be shut down.
I don't want to scare people half to death. It doesn't mean that FEMA will stop--which runs the NFIP--will stop paying claims, but it will stop commerce, if nothing else, because FEMA can't issue new policies. And, again, I realize it is not perfect. But we are in hurricane season.
Let me say that again. We are in hurricane season.
Is this important to my State? You bet. But it is not just important to my State; it is important to every single coastal State. And that is why I would like to see us extend this program for a very, very short period of time.
My bill is a clean extension. It doesn't make any changes to the program. I wish I had the authority to make changes, but I don't. This bill will just extend what we have now, imperfect as it may be--and Lord knows it is imperfect--through December 31, 2023. That will give us some additional time to design a program that looks like somebody designed it on purpose.
Let me say that again--and so is every coastal State. And we are going to shut down the National Flood Insurance Program in the middle of hurricane season, the U.S. Senate? What planet did we just parachute in from?
2968, which is at the desk; I further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed--and passed--and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
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Mr. KENNEDY. Maybe the homes that my good friend Senator Paul is describing are homes in Kentucky, but they are not homes in Louisiana. The homes in Louisiana that need flood insurance are not mansions. These are homes of working people. These are modest homes being paid for by people who get up every day, go to work, obey the law, pay their taxes, and try to do the right thing by their kids.
I don't know about the millionaires that Senator Paul is talking about. Again, maybe they are in Kentucky. But they are not in Louisiana. My coast is a working coast.
Point 2: What Senator Paul proposes is to limit flood insurance to $250,000.
The median sales price of a home in America today is $430,300. Now, there are a lot of reasons for that. One of the reasons for that is President Biden's inflation. But those are the facts. In Louisville, KY, the median sales price is $271,000. In Dallas, TX, it is $389,000. In Miami, it is $605,000.
Why do you want to fool the American people? Why do you want to ``reform'' a flood insurance program that is going to deny flood insurance?
Do some people own second homes? Yes. I thought Republicans weren't supposed to penalize success in America. I thought our position was that if you worked hard and accumulated wealth, first, you should get to keep most of it. Why? Because you earned it. And second, we should applaud success in America. If you earn enough to buy a second home, we shouldn't discourage that. The third reason I cannot agree to my friend Senator Paul's suggestion is because he knows as well as I do that many of us have worked together to try to reform the Flood Insurance Program. We haven't reached consensus yet. We are going to keep working. But if I agree to Senator Paul's suggestion today, both he and I will be selling out our colleagues who would not agree to these changes, and they are not here right now.
The easy thing for me to do is to accept the Senator's proposal, but I don't play that way. I am not going to do it without giving every Member of this Senate who would like input into Senator Paul's suggestions the chance to object as well. I don't play that way.
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Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I appreciate my colleague Senator Paul and his comments. I, like him, would like to continue to work with our colleagues to reform this program. But when reality calls, you shouldn't hang up, and that is what we have done here today, because this government is going to shut down. I hope I am wrong--God, I hope I am wrong--but I think this government is going to shut down midnight Sunday night, and the National Flood Insurance Program is going to shut down with it, right smack dab in the middle of hurricane season.
I thought the first role of government--I thought this is what Republicans believe; I thought this is what Libertarians believe--the first role of government is to protect people and property. And all the U.S. Senate has done today is expose ordinary Americans--not millionaires; ordinary Americans--who live in modest homes, who get up every day--I am going to say it again--and go to work and obey the law and pay their taxes and try to do the right thing by their kids and whose home is their biggest asset. We are going to tell them: It is OK. Even though you can't buy the flood insurance from a private provider, the government is going to stop you from buying it from the National Flood Insurance Program right in the middle of hurricane season.
That is not what this country is all about.
All my bill would have done--and I will be back. Just like the Terminator, I will be back. All my bill would do would be to take the current program--the current program, I will concede--I agree with Senator Paul--the current program looks like somebody knocked over a urine sample. It is that bad. But we need to work to improve it. But in the meantime, we do not need to allow it to expire.
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