National Flood Insurance Program Extension Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

National Flood Insurance Program Extension Act Of 2009

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Mrs. CAPITO. I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the chairman of the full committee, the gentleman from Massachusetts, for his bipartisan way of approaching this particular issue. He is correct when he says that we've gone back and forth on this over, I think, almost a decade on the way to reform this program. We certainly want to see that.

Everyone here should be in agreement that the National Flood Insurance Program needs reform. The chairman spoke of that. But I think we can also agree it would be irresponsible and unfair to many communities and areas where flooding occurs to let the program expire at the end of September 2009 without attempting to fix it, which is why we need to pass another short-term extension today.

The National Flood Insurance Program is currently carrying a debt in excess of more than $19 billion, primarily from property damage claims that were paid after the series of big storms that hit Florida in 2004 and the gulf coast in 2005. According to the Government Accountability Office, the NFIP is underfunded by design because many property owners continue to receive subsidized premium rates under long-standing provisions in place since the flood insurance rate mapping system went into effect in 1974. We need to deal with these issues. It's going to take bipartisan leadership on both sides, and I think we have that commitment to get it done. Many of us believe it's time for Congress to work toward encouraging more private insurance and reinsurance capacity to help protect at-risk communities and high-risk regions against the potential damages of flooding as well as other natural disasters. We are committed to pressing forward with reforms as soon as possible and urge others to join us in making this a bipartisan effort as well as a higher priority in this Congress.

In addition to supporting the need for a short-term flood insurance extension bill, I support a small but important technical change that would end the program's illogical and unwarranted discrimination against State and local funding of levee construction and improvement projects. I commend my friend, Congresswoman Matsui from Sacramento, for her leadership and her thoughtful and constructive proposal. I also would like to salute Congresswoman LYNN JENKINS of Kansas, an active member of our committee, for lending her support. As I previously stated, I know that we have a great need for reform in this program, and hopefully that will be our ultimate goal. But at the same time, I think it's wise for this Congress to extend this program for another 6 months as we would do in this legislation.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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