Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act of 2007--Continued

Floor Speech

FLOOD INSURANCE REFORM AND MODERNIZATION ACT OF 2007--Continued -- (Senate - May 07, 2008)

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Mr. WICKER. I thank my friend, the Senator from Florida, for yielding.

I, too, wish to commend him for his statement about the complexity of this issue. I appreciate the reservations he has expressed, while at the same time expressing support for the Wicker amendment today. I would hope the Senator would agree that support for this amendment today, though it might not be a perfect amendment, would send the signal he suggested--that there needs to be a Federal response to this issue.

We know this bill will go to conference. There will be additional work on it. But I would like to send a signal to the executive branch, to the insurance industry, to the homebuilders, to the realtors, we need to get busy on this issue.

Because, as the Senator said, the insurance for wind coverage is not there anymore in the private market at an affordable rate. And the wind pools are not affordable, because the pool is so small that we cannot spread the risk, whether it is Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina, Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, or my home State of Mississippi.

This is a problem for people when the next big one comes, as my friend has said. We do not know where or when it will come, but what we do know for a certainty is it will indeed come.

So I appreciate the thoughtfulness of the Senator's remarks. I appreciate his bottom indication that he supports the amendment as a vehicle to move this issue forward.

I yield the floor.

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