Flood Insurance Market Parity and Modernization Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida for yielding time to me.

You might wonder: Why is someone from New Mexico even speaking about flood insurance problems? We get about 9 inches of rain a year in my district. Also, it is the high desert. They call it that because we begin at around 3,500 feet of elevation and work up from there.

The way the National Flood Insurance Program has worked out in the past is that people are required, because they happen to be in a flood plain--and we are not dealing with whether or not they should be in a flood plain; we are dealing with the fact that they get no competitive bids--to only get the one government-size bid. And that is never very functional.

So the most egregious circumstance that exists is one that one of my constituents mentioned. He said: I live at the top of a 7,000-foot mountain. The water is down here at about 4,000 feet, 3,000 feet below me, and I have to buy flood insurance.

Well, the fact that he has to buy flood insurance is egregious enough, but the fact that he has to live and pay premiums based on the actuary standards that might exist in Florida is the egregious part. What it does is keeps houses from selling and people from being able to buy houses in New Mexico because they have been defined as being in a flood plain.

If the market were out there, there would be companies that say: Wait. That guy is never going to flood. I can charge him a minute amount and still make money on his policy.

Yet, nothing like that exists. So we find ourselves paying to the same standards as the people in Florida pay when we get 9 inches of rain a year.

So I really appreciate the gentleman's attempt to bring some competition into the workplace. I appreciate Mr. Capuano's support of the bill, Mr. Murphy's underlying co-sponsorship.

I am here to support heartily H.R. 2901, the Flood Insurance Market Parity and Modernization Act.

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