Rep. Miller: Eliminate the National Flood Insurance Program

WASHINGTON - U.S. Representative Candice Miller (MI-10) today made the following remarks on the Floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in opposition to the continued reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program:

"What in the world is the federal government doing in the national flood insurance business? I give the sponsors of this legislation credit for the fact that they are trying to reform what I think is an unnecessary federal government boondoggle, but rather than reforming this I think we need to eliminate the National Flood Insurance Program. As an example, so many of us were very strongly opposed to, Obamacare, the government takeover of healthcare, because we didn't believe the federal government should be running health care for our entire nation. But apparently we have no problem with the federal government running a national flood insurance program?

"This program was created in 1968, and we started writing policies in 1972. Today, this program is almost $18 billion in debt. And FEMA says that this debt will never be paid off. Never. So not only is the federal government improperly running a flood insurance program; it is operating a very bad flood insurance program.

"The National Flood Insurance Program is not actuarially sound; it charges some in the highest-risk areas subsidized rates and charges others in areas of no risk astronomical rates to pay for those subsidies. Take my home state of Michigan for example where our residents have been forced into this program, charged thousands of dollars each and every year even we have almost no risk of flooding. In Michigan, we actually look down at the water not up at the water. We pay multiple times more in premiums than we have ever received back in benefits. In short, the people of the great state of Michigan are getting fleeced by this program.

"Obviously we are a compassionate nation and if we have a case of a national disaster then we need to make sure that we step-up and give relief to our fellow Americans. But what we are doing today is simply not fair. What we should have is a national catastrophic fund in which everyone pays into not just some who are being forced to subsidize others - that is not fair. I hope that my colleagues will join me in rejecting the reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program so that we can get to work on way to allow the private marketplace to move in and replace it."

Read this original document at: http://candicemiller.house.gov/2012/05/rep-miller-eliminate-the-national-flood-insurance-program.shtml