Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act of 2007

Floor Speech

FLOOD INSURANCE REFORM AND MODERNIZATION ACT OF 2007 -- (Senate - May 13, 2008)

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I would like to speak to the amendment which we will vote on shortly. It relates to the cost of gasoline. I can't think of another issue that has been in the forefront across America for a longer period than the cost of gasoline. It goes beyond that, obviously, to diesel fuel and jet fuel costs. We see it every day. You drive down the road, and you watch prices going up at the gas station. People ask Senators and Congressmen: You are supposed to be the bigwigs here. You are supposed to be so influential. Why haven't you done something; the gas prices are killing us.

And they are. Whether it is a family member commuting back and forth to work in downstate Illinois, trying to get to the State capitol, whether it is a an over-the-road trucker spending almost $1,000 to fill up his rig with diesel fuel, whether it is the CEO of an airline who has seen the worst first-quarter losses in the history of that airline because of the rise in the cost of jet fuel, it is hitting everybody. I talked to a chiropractor over the weekend. She told me her practice was dying because people didn't want to drive 20 miles for her services. They said: We will see you every other week instead of every week. As you see, it is starting to reach into every single area.

So what response do we have from the Republican side? The response is predictable and ineffective. Here is what they say: You know what we ought to do. We ought to start drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and we ought to start drilling for oil off the coasts of America.

OK. How much oil is there?

Oh, there is a lot.

In the scheme of things, it is not a lot. All of the oil reserves within the control of the United States of America, all of them combined come to 3 percent of the world's total oil reserves. Each year, our Nation--a powerful, large economy--consumes 25 percent of all the oil produced in the world. We cannot drill our way out of this issue. We cannot drill our way to lower prices.

Here is something they fail to mention: If we gave approval today--which I think would be a bad idea--to the Republican approach, it would be years before the oil would start trickling in, meaning years of high prices.

So what can we do here and now? Two things: First, we can start dealing with the price gouging of consumers. Prices are going up dramatically at historically high rates. They are not justified by the barrel-of-oil prices. The spread between the cost of a barrel of oil and the cost of refined product keeps growing larger and larger, and the oil companies that are refining the crude oil keep making more and more money.

Price gouging is going on. That is the first issue. Is there any mention of consumer price gouging in the Republican approach? Not one word. In the Democratic approach, we believe price gouging should be part of this.

Secondly, accountability of the oil companies. These oil companies, over the last 7 years when George Bush from oil country has been our President, have seen their profits quadruple--four times the profits they were making just a few years ago. The cost of oil and diesel fuel has gone up 2 1/2 times; the oil company profits, quadrupled. These companies are not only making more money than oil companies have ever made, they are making more money than any business in the history of America. That is a fact.

We have a windfall profits tax. We say there is a limit to how much these oil companies should be making as profits when it causes so much damage to American families and businesses and farmers and truckers and the economy. We have a windfall profits tax. The Republican approach: nothing--nothing to address the oil company profits. That is the reality.

Now, Senator Reid, the Democratic majority leader, came to the floor a few minutes ago and told us what is going on with the Republican strategy. So far in this session of Congress--we have 2-year sessions of Congress--the Republicans have initiated 70 filibusters. Today, they will hit 71. You might say: So what. What does that mean? In the history of the Senate--over 200 years--the maximum number of filibusters in a 2-year period of time was 57. The Republicans have broken that record.

What is a filibuster? A filibuster is a way to delay, slow down, avoid, try to turn the page to another issue. Over and over and over again--70 times--the Republicans have now set a record for obstruction in stopping progress in the Senate, whether it is on issues of energy, whether it is on issues of health care, helping our schools, dealing with the war in Iraq--over and over and over again, Republican filibusters.

Today, we will have a vote. We are going to have a vote in a short period of time--at 12:15, maybe earlier; I am not sure. But in the course of that vote, we will have a choice on whether we at least will make one small step forward when it comes to dealing with gasoline prices. We cannot justify, in the current situation, continuing to take oil off the market where the Federal Government buys it and stores it. It is called the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Currently, it is at about 97 percent of capacity. We are buying the most expensive crude oil in the history of the world, and storing it, taking it off the market, further putting an increase on gasoline prices.

We will offer an alternative to the Republican approach which will say that we will suspend filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It might pass. Fifty-one Democratic Senators, incidentally, wrote a letter to the President on March 11 asking the President to suspend the filling of the Petroleum Reserve because gasoline prices were out of control. The President refused. Now we have to pass a law to force the President to do something about these gasoline prices.

I think suspending shipments to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is the most sensible way for us to bring these prices down. I hope we can get the cooperation of the Republicans, beyond that, to deal with the price gouging of consumers and accountability for oil companies and not face another Republican filibuster when it comes to that important issue.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I rise in support of the Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act of 2007.

After Hurricane Katrina, I had a chance to meet some of the survivors who were displaced by the storm and ended up in Illinois. Many had lost their homes, their jobs, their communities, everything. Nearly 3 years later, some are still picking up the pieces of a former life.

We can't stop every disaster from happening. But we can be prepared, so what happened after Katrina never happens again.

Katrina taught us the importance of being prepared. We need to understand the risks of disaster, prepare homes and communities to withstand disaster, and make sure that once disaster strikes, communities can get back on their feet as quickly as possible.

The national flood insurance program is one of the best ways we do this. It allows people who live near rivers or other flood-prone areas to insure themselves at an affordable rate against the risk of a flood. If the worst happens, it covers some of the costs of recovery.

This program is critically important to Illinois.

Illinois has the largest inland system of rivers, lakes, and streams in the Nation. Floods are 98 percent of Illinois' declared disasters. That is why only three other States have more communities participating in the flood insurance program than Illinois.

The bill before us today renews the flood insurance program, which expires this September, and strengthens the program in several important ways.

It puts the program on sound financial footing. It forgives the $17 billion debt from Katrina and other storm-related losses, a debt the program could never repay. But the bill also requires FEMA to establish a reserve fund so we are in better shape to cover future losses.

It encourages more people to buy flood insurance.

It provides more funding to update old flood maps, so communities know where the hazards are and can plan accordingly.

And I am pleased that this legislation also contains an amendment I offered to make sure that the costs of flood insurance are shared fairly between Illinois and Missouri down near St. Louis.

Floods are among the most common and costly natural disasters. Passing this bill will strengthen our ability to prepare for what we know is coming and to return to our lives as soon as possible once the flood waters recede. This bill helps ensure that when the next Katrina-like disaster hits, we won't see a Katrina-like aftermath.

I thank Senators Dodd and Shelby for their hard work on this bill and urge my colleagues to support it.

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