The U.S. House of Representatives approved a measure late Friday afternoon allowing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to borrow $9.7 billion to pay insurance claims made by victims of Hurricane Sandy.
The bill, HR 41, temporarily increases the borrowing authority of FEMA to allow the agency to carry out payment claims made by property owners to the National Flood Insurance Program.
Congress moved to approve the funding stop-gap Friday after concerns were raised that aid for Sandy victims had been delayed too long. The House, specifically, Majority Speaker John Boehner, R-OH, came under fire for tabling a Sandy aid package until after the New Year.
Congress is expected to vote on two additional bills authorizing more than $50 billion in Sandy aid on Jan. 15.
The insurance aid bill was introduced by Rep. Scott Garrett, R-5, along with 19 co-sponsors, all of them Representatives from either New Jersey or New York.
According to Bloomberg, the measure passed 354-67. The 67 who voted against the bill are all Republicans.
Rep. Chris Smith, R-4, one of the bill's co-sponsors, took to the floor of Congress Friday to urge his fellow Representatives to support the legislation.
"The devastation unleashed by Sandy is without precedent and the impacted communities are in dire need of comprehensive assistance," he said. "Nowhere is this more evident than in the sheer magnitude of the housing damage and the subsequent housing need."
According to Gov. Christie, New Jersey suffered more than $37 billion in property damage following Sandy. According to Christie's office, Smith said, Sandy damaged or destroyed 346,000 housing unites throughout the state, of which more than 72,000 were covered by the NFIP.
Smith said only 18 percent of those who have filed claims have received money thus far.
Local Congressional leaders, both Republican and Democrats alike, joined Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in voicing their displeasure over the delay in aid for Sandy victims. Christie in particular had harsh words for Congress, saying Sandy victims had been played like pawns in a political game and that the delay in voting on the funding package was the result of toxic politics within the Republican party.
What school did you attend? Didn't they teach about capital letters and punctuation?
The degree of subjective politics that have been posted in the comments by a number of people has risen to a point of having no bearing on the subject of this news article - "Congress Approves $9.7 Billion in Insurance Funding to Aid Sandy Victims." Saying anything political here beyond pointing out that Republican party holds the majority in the House of Representatives, that Majority Speaker John Boehner tabled a pending aid package until after the New Year, and the number of Yes and No votes by each party on HR41 goes beyond what is needed here. And, yes I stand guilty of having had contributed to that needlessness in one of my posts here.
It is NOT the job of the federal Gov't to restore everything or to make all citizens whole. I believe their mandate is survival. They try and provide food and shelter in the short term. Their standards are; safe, sanitary and secure for housing. Vacation homes and seasonal houses get a lower priority than primary, permanent dwellings. It is the job of the Gov't to try and mitigate Global Warming and to minimize flood damage. BOCA codes and fire regulations are a valid function of free society.
Now, that is as to FEMA funds when a person doesn't have a flood insurance policy to paid for covered damages. It does get confusing as flood insurance policies are funded by FEMA who in turn is funded by federal tax dollars. However, the policies are administered by various insurance companies that participate in the National Flood Insurance Program. I've had flood insurance for 23 years as I live across from a county park with a lake in it. I've never needed to make a claim, so I don't know if I did whether I would get a settlement check with the insurance company's name on it, (Fidelity National Property & Casualty Insurance Company in my case), or with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on it. Bottom line is that no matter the administering insurance company, all flood insurance policies are part of the National Flood Insurance Program.
I received an advance on my flood damage and the check came from the insurance company. I am sure they petition FEMA to recover those funds plus their fee plus the adjusters compensation.
Albert Einstein, (attributed) http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/26032.html If you know who did say it perhaps you could enlighten the people at http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/26032.html and several other sites that attribute it to him.
Reinsurance, whether from FEMA or a private reinsurance company pay the insurance company that issued the policy for amounts in excess of assets or liability.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_first_said_that_the_definition_of_insanity_is_to_do_the_same_thing_over_and_over_and_expect_different_results and here: http://tymora42.wordpress.com/2011/08/06/who-said-the-definition-of-insanity-is-doing-the-same-thing-over-and-over-and-expecting-different-results/
But hey, who am I to dispute Legend-in-his-Own-Mind Paul Di.
As I said, it makes sense. If you start your car and back out of the garage before you open the door more than once you probably aren't playing with a full deck.
You might also read the resume and other qualifications of the people running your source including their experience in grocery stocking and parts delivery but nothing resembling an academic, linguistic or historical education or experience. The quote itself is really pretty lame and simplistic, but no doubt fit right in to the AA mindset.
But then, I would have to ask if that would include members of Congress and other prominent Americans who are recovering alcoholics.
Your own references support that there are no private insurance companies. Companies that offer flood themselves, using their own money to pay out claims, etc. They are members of the NFIP and administering the policies and adjusting the claims, but it's NFIP money, through FEMA (and then actually the Homeland Security Department), that provide the money to pay out claims. I don't know who here has a flood insurance policy, I do. Therefore, I can tell you that when my company sends out my new anual endorsement page to attach to my policy, FEMA documents are included with it. One is an easy to read short booklet called: National Flood Insurance Program Flood Insurance Claim Handbook FEMA F-687 / (insert date here of new edition if applicable from the prior year) While not the specific subject of comments here, but so in comments on other related Patch articles about Sandy, the handbook on page 2 under a section called "What To Do Before A Flood" clearly states, "Move any valuable items out of your basement. Flood insurance only covers items normally found in a basement, such as a furnace or washer and dryer. Personal items are not covered."