Floor Statements

Madam Chairman, I want to thank all of the Members of the Seapower and Expeditionary Forces Subcommittee for their cooperation on this. I want to thank in particular Ranking Member Saxton and Chairman Abercrombie for the funds that were transferred from their portions of the bill to address the immediate warfighter needs in Iraq.

Madam Chairman, a disproportionately high number of Americans are dying in Iraq in explosions that involve Humvees. We as a Nation have spent a lot of money to protect the troops that ride in them. Unfortunately, the enemy has discovered that Humvees are vulnerable from the bottom. This bill includes $4.1 billion, ten times more than the President's request, to field a new generation of vehicles, a mine resistant ambush-protected vehicle, to protect the troops in Iraq. This could only be done with the cooperation of the Air and Land Forces Subcommittee and the Seapower and Expeditionary Forces Subcommittee.

Keep in mind that the President's budget request was actually written about a year ago. It is responding to the needs as we see them in the field, and I think a very good move. We also want to thank the great staff of the Seapower and Expeditionary Forces Subcommittee for the work that they have done.

The President asked for seven ships in this year's budget: a Gerald Ford class aircraft carrier; a Virginia-class submarine; an LPD 17; two LCSs; a T-AKE cargo ship; and a Joint High Speed Vessel. Because of the good work of the subcommittee and the cooperation of the other subcommittees of the Committee on Armed Services, this committee has added an additional LPD 17, an additional T-AKE cargo ship, and the forward funding for an additional submarine.

The Bush administration's Defense budgets have grown by well over $100 billion during their tenure. Unfortunately, the Navy fleet has shrunk by 50 ships during the same time. This marks the first attempt on the part of the committee in a long time to reverse that trend and get our Nation back on course for a 313-ship Navy, and I want to thank all those who helped make that possible.

Additionally, the bill funds a competitive engine program for the Joint Strike Fighter. It fully funds the administration's request for ship and aviation construction and procurement. It fully funds the administration's request for the operation of the Maritime Administration.

The bill would allow the Secretary of the Navy to come up with a program for capital expenditure in shipbuilding to help modernize our shipyard infrastructure and reduce the cost of our Navy ships to the taxpayers.

It will allow for the multi-year procurement for Virginia-class submarines, and it will direct the Secretary of the Navy to design and construct the next generation of surface warships with integrated nuclear power systems.

Madam Chairman, it makes no sense at all to have aircraft carriers that carry 30 years' worth of fuel on board when the vessels that are necessary to protect them have to refuel every 5 days. We are addressing this vulnerability to our fleet and, more importantly, we are taking a huge step on behalf of the Department of Defense to make our Nation less dependent on foreign sources of fuel.

I would like to acknowledge that none of these initiatives could have taken place without the great cooperation and leadership on the part of the former chairman, Mr. Bartlett. Addressing the nuclear power issue is a direct result of his making the committee aware of our vulnerabilities to fuel, and the need for shipyard modernization again is a direct result of his efforts while he was chairman. It is also with the great cooperation of the minority and the members of our staff that we present this portion of the bill to the Congress and ask for its approval.

Notice to Alter Order of Consideration of Amendments

Mr. Speaker, I won't need 3 minutes. I just want to applaud the conversion of my Republican colleagues.

Six years ago the Nation was breaking even on an annual basis. They came to town with a new President and in the span of 3 years added $3 trillion to the national debt, never once explaining any remorse, never once saying, we're going to turn this around.

So I am really pleased to see the conversion, and I want to applaud you for it. I just wish it had happened 6 years ago.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in tribute to the life and service of ENS Jesse LeRoy Brown, United States Navy. Ensign Brown was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, on 13 October 1926. He enlisted in the Naval Reserve in 1946 and was appointed a Midshipman, USN, the following year. After attending Navy pre-flight school and flight training, he was designated a Naval Aviator in October 1948, the first African-American to achieve this status. Midshipman Brown was then assigned to Fighter Squadron 32. He received his commission as an Ensign in April 1949.

During the Korean War, he operated from USS Leyte, flying F4U-4 Corsair fighter aircraft in support of United Nations forces. On December 4, 1950, while on a close air support mission near the Chosin Reservoir, Ensign Brown's plane was hit by enemy fire and crashed. Despite heroic efforts by other aviators, he could not be rescued and died in his aircraft. ENS Jesse L. Brown was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his Korean War combat service.

In honor of his service, the Secretary of the Navy named the 38th ship in the Knox-class of frigates the USS Jesse L. Brown.

Madam Speaker, I know my colleagues will join me in honoring Jesse's memory, and celebrating the addition of a plaque in his memory to the Naval Aviation Monument Park in Virginia Beach, to be presented May 5, 2007. Ensign Brown was both a pioneer and a model of service to country, who gave his life that we might enjoy our freedom.

First let me tell the gentleman from Georgia I appreciate him trying to save some money. I think his efforts, though, are a year late. If you want to look for Katrina fraud, look for Katrina fraud that was perpetrated by the Bush administration.

In south Mississippi we had 40,000 people at one point living in FEMA trailers. We are grateful for every one of them, but those trailers were delivered by a friend of the President, Riley Bechtel, a major contributor to the Bush administration. He got $16,000 to haul a trailer the last 70 miles from Purvis, Mississippi down to the gulf coast, hook it up to a garden hose, hook it up to a sewer tap and plug it in; $16,000.

So the gentleman never came to the floor once last year to talk about that fraud. But now little towns like Waveland, Bay Saint Louis, Pas Christian, that have no tax base because their stores were destroyed in the storm, a county like Hancock County where 90 percent of the residents lost everything, or at least substantial damage to their home, he wants to punish Bay Saint Louis, he wants to punish Waveland, he wants to punish Pas Christian.

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announcement by the acting chairman

First let me tell the gentleman from Georgia I appreciate him trying to save some money. I think his efforts, though, are a year late. If you want to look for Katrina fraud, look for Katrina fraud that was perpetrated by the Bush administration.

In south Mississippi we had 40,000 people at one point living in FEMA trailers. We are grateful for every one of them, but those trailers were delivered by a friend of the President, Riley Bechtel, a major contributor to the Bush administration. He got $16,000 to haul a trailer the last 70 miles from Purvis, Mississippi down to the gulf coast, hook it up to a garden hose, hook it up to a sewer tap and plug it in; $16,000.

So the gentleman never came to the floor once last year to talk about that fraud. But now little towns like Waveland, Bay Saint Louis, Pas Christian, that have no tax base because their stores were destroyed in the storm, a county like Hancock County where 90 percent of the residents lost everything, or at least substantial damage to their home, he wants to punish Bay Saint Louis, he wants to punish Waveland, he wants to punish Pas Christian.

* * *

announcement by the acting chairman

First let me tell the gentleman from Georgia I appreciate him trying to save some money. I think his efforts, though, are a year late. If you want to look for Katrina fraud, look for Katrina fraud that was perpetrated by the Bush administration.

In south Mississippi we had 40,000 people at one point living in FEMA trailers. We are grateful for every one of them, but those trailers were delivered by a friend of the President, Riley Bechtel, a major contributor to the Bush administration. He got $16,000 to haul a trailer the last 70 miles from Purvis, Mississippi down to the gulf coast, hook it up to a garden hose, hook it up to a sewer tap and plug it in; $16,000.

So the gentleman never came to the floor once last year to talk about that fraud. But now little towns like Waveland, Bay Saint Louis, Pas Christian, that have no tax base because their stores were destroyed in the storm, a county like Hancock County where 90 percent of the residents lost everything, or at least substantial damage to their home, he wants to punish Bay Saint Louis, he wants to punish Waveland, he wants to punish Pas Christian.

Mr. Price, I wish you would have the decency, if you are going to do that to the people of south Mississippi, that maybe you ought to come visit south Mississippi before you hold them to a standard that you would never hold your own people to and that you failed to hold the Bush administration to.

With that, I yield back my time.

announcement by the acting chairman

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House for 1 minute.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, Mr. Buyer.

In the course of the debate I encouraged, with words that were a little bit too strong, my colleague from Georgia to come visit south Mississippi and see the aftermath of Katrina. I used the word ``decency'' when I should have said ``the courtesy.'' If I have offended his decency, then I apologize for that.

But the offer stands. The gentleman was good enough to admit privately that he has not visited south Mississippi since the storm, has not seen that the town of Waveland is virtually gone, that Bay Saint Louis is virtually gone, that Pass Christian is virtually gone. To the point of his amendment: How does a town that is gone come up with matching funds to restore itself?

So I appreciate the gentleman yielding. I hope I have made my point to the membership, and I thank the body.

Will the gentleman yield?

It is interesting, since you were talking about history and since you have been using this quote, and I knew this before the gentleman got here, but the last time, to my recollection, that the United States Congress has cut off funds for troops in the field and demanded they be taken out of someplace was in November of 1993. It was a motion written by a gentleman from New York, a Republican by the name of Ben Gilman. It was brought to this floor by a Republican by the name of Jerry Solomon, and it instructed the Clinton administration to get troops out of Somalia.

I just think that is important to add, in a historical context, that this has happened before. In fact, Members through the Republican party have led the effort to get the troops out of a Muslim-dominated country within the last couple of decades.

I do want to remind the American people that you were not here for that. I was. I had to do a little research to remember the exact set of circumstances, but I do think it is important to add to this debate.

Madam Speaker, I have the great fortune to represent the people of south and coastal Mississippi, and I never want to miss the opportunity on their behalf to thank the other people of our great Nation for the help that has been provided to us in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, both individuals, Rotarians, college kids. But so many people have just been magnificent in their helping South Mississippi after the storm, and we want to thank you.

There has, Madam Speaker, unfortunately been a group that has been particularly unhelpful to the recovery of south Mississippi, and that is the insurance business, in particular the property and casualty business around the country.

I want to bring to your attention just one of the many of the thousands of homes in south Mississippi that were destroyed by the storm. The people there had insurance, contrary to what the Wall Street Journal will tell you. They had insurance against flood. They had insurance against wind. And when the storm came, they thought they were covered. And they woke up the day after the storm, and their homes were gone.

This is a sketch of Will Clark's home in Pass Christian, Mississippi. Being very fond of his place, he hired a local artist to sketch it. This is what it looked like the day before Katrina. That is what it looked like the day after.

Will, being a good businessman, had $250,000 worth of homeowners insurance on his home. The folks from State Farm, within a few days of the storm, came to his property, looked around, said they saw no evidence of wind damage, despite all the things you see knocked down by the wind, and paid him nothing on his insurance claim. A $250,000 policy paid him nothing.

The next homeowner I want to bring to your attention is the home of Mr. and Mrs. James Scanlon. This is what it looks like. The Scanlons had $304,000 worth of insurance on this home. The day after Katrina, it looked like that. The Scanlons were with Nationwide Insurance Company. Nationwide paid them $13,000 on that damage. For those of you who have done some remodeling yourselves, you know that $13,000 might replace that front door and maybe that window; $304,000 worth of insurance paid them $13,000.

The third one I want to bring to your attention is the home of Ms. Diane Quinn in Biloxi, Mississippi. To give you the magnitude of this storm, it stretched all the way from New Orleans to Mobile, Alabama. This is what Mrs. Quinn's home looked like the day before Katrina. She had $249,000 worth of insurance with Allstate Insurance Company. The day after the storm, her home looked like that.

Within days of the storm, in addition to all the other trauma she had been to, the folks from Allstate, I believe that is ``The Good Hands'' folks, came and told her that they would give her $10,000 for the loss of her home.

Mr. Speaker, there is zero Federal regulation of the insurance industry. When people came to me with claims like that and said, ``What can you do for me,'' I had to give them the unfortunate answer, ``Absolutely nothing.'' But it wasn't just these folks who were harmed by the storm, you see; it was every American.

The people that did pay claims was our Nation's flood insurance policy. The Nation's flood insurance policy is written in a way that we hire the private sector to sell that policy, and we hire the private sector to adjudicate the claim in events like this.

The problem that came in is, when those insurance agents went to those three properties, and even though the Navy tells us we had 5 hours of hurricane-force winds before the water got there, the insurance agents said, ``We see no evidence of wind damage. So, therefore, we are not going to pay you on your homeowner's policy; you have to pay your flood policy.''

Under the law, they are required to have a fair adjudication of the claim. And yet, at the same time that they require our Nation to have a fair adjudication of the claim, folks like State Farm and Nationwide are sending out memorandum to their claims adjusters, and this is a quote: ``Where wind acts concurrently with flooding to cause damage to the insured's property, coverage for the loss exists only under the flood coverage.'' That means that not only these folks were cheated out of their homeowners policies, but you as taxpayers were cheated to pay claims that should have been paid by the insurance industry.

Now, the folks who run that company, a gentleman by the name of Ed Rust to be particular, rather than expressing remorse for what his company did to the people of America, was rewarded this year with a $9,890,000 bonus

for telling folks like that, ``We're not going to pay you.''

Madam Speaker, this needs to be investigated. There are claims adjusters who were so disgusted with what they saw and what they did to individuals that they have turned the insurance industry in for this fraud that has been perpetrated upon the American people.

Madam Speaker, this Democratic Congress needs to keep faith with the people of America and investigate this, because I am convinced that the biggest Katrina fraud of all was ripping off the American taxpayer to the tune of billions of dollars.

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the people of South Mississippi, I want to thank my fellow Americans for the incredible generosity they have shown the people of south Mississippi in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Literally within hours of that storm, fellow Americans who were National Guardsmen, who were Coast Guardsmen, in the Armed Forces, the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and Marines. They were there helping the people of south Mississippi recover.

Since that time, the people of America dug into their pockets as taxpayers. They dug into their pockets as individuals. They sent Christmas presents, and they donated their time. From school kids to senior citizens, they all came to south Mississippi to help.

It seems like for a while everyone was trying to help south Mississippi, and then the harsh reality was that not everyone really was going to help; that there was actually an element in corporate America that thought they could use this storm as a way to make a lot of money. I am referring to the property and casualty business that insured many of the people in south Mississippi.

Mr. Speaker, almost as soon as the roads were cleared of trees and power lines and dead animals and all the things, we found, unfortunately, in the wake of Katrina, representatives of property and casualty companies were showing up on people's lots, what was left of their homes, and telling them that they had found a reason in the fine print of their policies not to pay.

Even before I made my way back to Congress, and it took about 2 weeks after the storm for me to get here, they were already working the lobbies, buying steak dinners, buying lobster dinners, buying champagne and telling my colleagues, well, you are going to hear from those people in Mississippi; and, you know, yeah, we denied them, but they are not very smart. They didn't have enough insurance. They built their houses too close to the ground, and they flood all the time, and that is why we had to tell them no.

So, Mr. Speaker, we need to change that. But before I tell you why we need to change it, before I need to tell you what we need to do, I want to give you a couple of examples.

Remember they said they are not very smart? This was the home of John and Molly Hadden. John has a Master's in business from Tulane University. They said their home was too close to the ground. As you can see, it was about 11 feet off the ground, or 22 feet above sea level. They said they were underinsured. If you had gone down Beach Boulevard in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, a week before Katrina, this is what you would have seen. A beautiful home, less than 10 years old, and built to all the current standards. If you would have gone down that same road, when you could go down that road, a couple weeks after the storm, this is what you would have seen.

John Hadden, being an MBA, a pretty good businessman, knew that to replace this, should something bad happen, would cost a lot of money. He had a $650,000 insurance policy, to which the folks from State Farm, 16 months later, have given him nothing.

If you had gone a little farther down that street before the storm you would have seen approximately a 130-year-old house owned by Joe and Betty Benvenutti. Joe is himself in the insurance business. This house had been there and survived no telling how many hurricanes, five in my lifetime, and many more prior to that. Joe, being in the insurance industry, knew the importance of being properly covered. So for this beautiful classic historic home, Joe and Betty had $586,000 worth of insurance. Yet 16 months later, their carrier, State Farm Insurance Company, has paid them nothing, and this is what they found after the storm, by the way: a couple of their kids' trophies, a couple of bricks, maybe a toy or two laying around where the foundation used to be.

Next door to the Benvenuttis we have Mike and Eileen Chapoton. Mike is the head of the trust department of the Whitney Bank, a very, very large regional bank, a job of incredible responsibility. Again, a good businessman who thought he had done all the things you are supposed to do with all the people you are supposed to do it with to protect his home in case something bad should happen. Mike purchased $236,000 worth of insurance through State Farm, and 16 months after the storm, he has been paid nothing.

Mr. Speaker, what State Farm says is, well, you weren't there when it happened, so we don't know how it happened. So unless you can prove to me that it wasn't a flood, we are not going to give you a dime.

Now, this leads to a couple of things. Why should a person have to stay in their home during a hurricane to get some fairness. I thought we put satellites in the sky. I thought we put buoys at sea, I thought we had the hurricane hunters fly planes into hurricanes to give us the warning to get the heck out of there. To encourage people to stay behind is only to encourage people to die. And yet the only people in south Mississippi who really got fairness from the insurance companies were the ones who stayed behind and miraculously lived, because they were an eye witness.

So we need all-perils insurance throughout our country.

The second thing. The insurance industry that told the Chapotons and the Haddens and the Benvenuttis now have the privilege of calling each other up; State Farm could call Nationwide, and say, you know what, I am not going to pay; don't you pay. And it is perfectly legal because they are exempt from the antitrust laws. That needs to change.

Lastly, because there is zero Federal regulation of the insurance industry, at this time there is absolutely nothing that I or any other Member of Congress can do about this. It is my hope that in the coming weeks we will fix all three of those problems.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the contributions of the crews, past and present, of the Submarine USS Hyman G. Rickover (SSN 709). On the 14th of December, this vessel will be inactivated, and its name struck from the rolls of U.S. warships. The contribution of this vessel to the defense of this Nation has been second to none, yet somewhat unheralded. From the Cold War through the current War on Terrorism, she and her crew have stood the watch. The Rickover served as a testament to the standards of excellence inspired by her namesake, the late Admiral Rickover. The father of the nuclear Navy, Admiral Rickover instilled a culture of technical excellence and individual responsibility in the Navy Nuclear Propulsion Program that continues to this day.

I would also like to commend the sponsor of this ship--Mrs. Eleonore Rickover, for her years of faithful support to the crew. She struck a chord at the ship's christening, when she said, ``In the name of the United States, I christen thee Hyman G. Rickover. May God bless her and all who sail in her, and may God bless their families and loved ones, for they also serve who only stand and wait.'' Mrs. Rickover lived up to those words in the years since that day with generous and heartfelt support of the sailors and families of Rickover. Going far beyond an occasional appearance, she embraced the ship and her crew--interested, involved and caring. Her service was a fitting testament to the legacy of pride and service left by her husband, ADM Rickover, to the Naval nuclear power program, and the entire U.S. Navy.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in commemorating this exceptional Naval warship; her crew and their families; their sponsor, Mrs. Eleonore Rickover, and the man who brought our Navy nuclear propulsion, Admiral Hyman G. Rickover.

Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday, December 5th, 2006, I was unavoidably detained, and I was unable to cast my vote during rollcall number 524 on H. Res.

1070, expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that Members of the House should actively engage with employers and the American public at large to encourage the hiring of members and former members of the Armed Forces who were wounded in service and are facing a transition to civilian life.

As a member of the House Armed Services Committee and a long-time champion of the military men and women who serve our Nation, I would have voted ``aye.''

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Skelton, the ranking member, and Chairman Hunter for the great work they have done.

I also want to thank Lieutenant Commander Kevin Aanestad, who the Navy was nice enough to let work in my office for a year. Just a while back Kevin was flying combat missions in Iraq. He has been assigned to this office, as was last year Captain Randy Edwards, and let us not forget that that is what this bill is all about. It is for the Kevins, the Randys and the people serving in Iraq now, the people who have been there, and the people who are going there.

I want to thank Chairman Bartlett for the great work he has done on the dual-lead strategy for the DDX. I think the DDGs have served our Nation very well, but it is time to move on to another platform, and it is great we are finally getting started on that.

I want to thank Chairman McHugh for including TRICARE for guardsmen and reservists in this bill. It was kind of a contentious vote last year. I wish we could have prevailed last year, but the good news is it is going to happen this year. Our guardsmen and reservists are called upon increasingly to serve our Nation.

At the time I made my pitch on the floor, 40 percent of the all people serving in Iraq were guardsmen or reservists. Since I made that pitch, we actually lost, I regret to say, a young National Guardsman by the name of Josh Russell. He died the night of Hurricane Katrina on a search and rescue mission only 30 miles from his home.

They deserve the same benefits as the Active Duty force. If we are going to use them the same as the Active Duty force, then it is a great thing that this bill is going to give them the same health care benefits.

The only disappointment I would like to express, Mr. Speaker, is, number one, I want to thank Chairman Hunter and thank Ranking Member Skelton for including language in the bill that would have provided an IED jammer on every vehicle in Iraq. If you look, as I do, at the casualty reports in the paper, you will see on a daily basis that young men and women are dying in Iraq as a result of an improvised explosive device exploding near their vehicle. Over half of all the casualties in Iraq are the result of IEDs, improvised explosive devices.

We can jam that signal most of the time. And it is not a parochial thing. These devices are made nowhere near south Mississippi. But what they will do is save the lives of south Mississippians and Marylanders and people from California and people from Missouri. So I deeply regret that the Senate would not agree with us on this provision.

They did, however, include a provision that every vehicle has some sort of coverage. But, again, in the chaos of combat, I think our Nation would be better served if every single vehicle had this provision; and I want to put my colleagues on notice that it is something we need to work on again next year.

So, again, I want to thank Chairman Bartlett for his great cooperation. Joel Hefley, you are one of the classiest acts that has ever served in the United States Congress. Thank you for your service. Chairman Hunter, Ranking Member Skelton, thank you very much for your help on this bill.

I want to thank Chairman Hunter and Ranking Member Skelton, as well as Chairman Warner and Ranking Member Levin, for their work on this Conference Report. They have done an outstanding job making this a truly bipartisan effort. As always, Chairman Bartlett and the Projection Forces staff have done a tremendous job crafting our Subcommittee's section of the bill. He has gone out of his way to ensure that this is a bipartisan effort, with provisions that make fiscally responsible decisions. I thank the Chairman for his leadership and for his consideration, even on issues on which our views differ. I strongly support the provisions in the Projection Forces portion of this bill.

I would like to thank the Chairman and Ranking Member for the compromise reached on the ``dual lead ship'' strategy for DDG I000

this year. Last year we in Congress required the Navy and the shipbuilding industry to use both surface combatant shipyards to build the DD(X), the Navy complied, and this bill follows through on that and allows us to be consistent in our direction to the department. The bill allows work to begin on a total of 7 new ships, with advanced procurement for an eighth--a good start towards reversing the decade long decline of our surface fleet.

The theme of fiscally conservative decision-making while maintaining the robust force structure our military requires is maintained throughout the Projection Forces section of this bill. From maintaining our strategic airlift capability with the addition of 10 more G-17s (for a total of 22), to allowing the retirement of only those KC-135s and B-52s that are the most expensive to maintain. It applies cost caps on future aircraft carriers and amphibious ships, and requires that future proposals for all surface ships include options for alternative propulsion sources such as nuclear power to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. I am extremely pleased to support the Projection Forces section of this bill.

I would like to express my appreciation as well for finally including the expansion of TRICARE coverage to members of the National Guard and Reserve. I want to commend all of my colleagues. In particular, I want to commend and remember a former colleague, the late Sonny Montgomery. I think Sonny would be very pleased that we are providing our Nation's Guardsmen and Reservists with TRICARE benefits. It is long overdue and I want to thank the chairman of the subcommittee, Chairman McHugh, and all the other people who helped make this happen. Providing this health coverage recognizes the sacrifices our Guard and Reserve troops are making every day. Insurgents in Iraq don't differentiate between reserve soldiers and active duty soldiers.

Lastly, I would like to express my disappointment in a compromise that weakened my provision to require IED jammers on all of our wheeled military vehicles at risk in Iraq and Afghanistan. This threat is responsible for over half of the casualties in the war. I realize jammers are not a 100 percent solution, but they are proven and known to be effective. This is not the last conflict in which our military personnel will face this threat, every potential enemy in the world is watching and learning from our current conflict. Our British and Australian allies require and provide a jammer on every vehicle; we should be ashamed that we don't do the same.

Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Skelton, I thank you and your staff again for the work you've done on this bill, and for your thoughtful insight and leadership in creating an overall extremely balanced measure that I am proud to support.

Mr. Speaker, let me being by thanking my colleagues in the Mississippi and Louisiana delegations for cosponsoring this.

Mr. Speaker, I could spend the remainder of this year's session naming south Mississippians who on an individual basis rose to the occasion and performed heroic deeds. Tonight we want to thank the employees of the Stennis Space Center for the phenomenal job they did in Hancock County, a county that 90 percent of the homes were either destroyed outright or severely damaged, a county where the vast majority of it was underwater for at least a substantial portion of the day.

Mr. Speaker, one of the interesting sidelights, my colleague and friend, Congressman Hall mentioned, the Stennis Space Center runway, a 10,000 runway that was open the next day after the storm in order to bring in vital supplies.

What the Congressman probably would never guess is that the person who opened that runway was the 13-year-old son of the airport manager, a young man by the name of Billy Cotter. His family had lost their home in Bay St. Louis. Knowing that the home was gone, they had gone out to the Stennis Space Center, moved into the dad's office. The dad's office had taken about waist-deep water, had about 6 inches of mud on the floor.

And realizing that that runway was the vital link in a county that almost all of the bridges coming to and from it had been destroyed, 13- year-old Billy Cotter hops on the street sweeper, gets out there, and the next day cleared the runway of, I am told, snakes, branches, trees, and had the runway up and running by Tuesday afternoon, which is absolutely remarkable for anyone, but in particular a young boy.

A reporter passes through the next day, and in trying a write a good news story of Katrina, looks over and notices that the helicopter that he was traveling in was being refueled by this little kid. And thinking it is pretty remarkable, goes up and hands the kid a $20 bill. The kid runs over to the refueling truck, opens the door and his pet dog is sitting in the driver's seat.

The kid is so thrilled to get the $20 bill, he shows the 20 to the dog. And of course OSHA and every other agency of occupational safety in America probably would have gone berserk.

But again here is Billy Cotter, 13 years old, running the street sweeper, refueling helicopters that are bringing in the life-saving goods. Billy really epitomizes the work that was going on out there, and the people pitching in doing what had to be done.

Mr. Speaker, the other person I want to mention also, in addition to great work of Stennis employees, on the day after Easter, a convoy of the 155th Mississippi National Guard was attacked in Iraq.

One of the drivers, a young Mississippi State student who had been activated for the war, a fellow by the name of William Brooks was severely wounded, lost both legs. He spends a lot of time at Walter Reed.

In the course of that, I had asked the folks at Mississippi State University if William was up to it, if he would do an internship, would they give him credit for his studies. For whatever reason, William chose not to take me up on that offer until the day after the storm.

The day after the storm, after many months of recuperating at Walter Reed Hospital, William finds some money for a cab fare, has the cab bring him to Capitol Hill, shows up at my office, says something to my staff that is kind of overwhelmed at this point, and says: ``I figured you all could use some help.''

And for the next couple of weeks, since the phones are down in Mississippi, and when a Mississippian can finally get to a phone and make a call looking for some assistance, almost all of those calls came to the Washington office.

Young William Brooks, who had been severely wounded in Iraq, was there answering the phone helping people. Again, I know the hour is late and I could tell 8,000 stories like that. But tonight we want to talk about the great work of the Stennis Space Center, so many of whom had lost their own homes, so many of whom retreated to the Space Center.

First thing, here is a place to take care of their families, but then pitching in and taking care of approximately 4,000 other south Mississippians who found themselves in the same predicament. So we want to commend the staff at the Stennis Space Center, Admiral Donaldson, who was in charge of leading the space center at that time, and all of the people out there for doing a phenomenal job of taking care of themselves, their families and the people who had retreated to the Stennis Space Center looking for hope in the aftermath of the storm.

What is really remarkable about my fellow south Mississippians is that the extremely high percentage of people who had lost their own homes, be their firemen, policemen, civil servants, the airport manager, fill-in-the blank, but who kept going to work, taking care of others, knowing that there really was not much that they could do for themselves, but they were in a position to help someone else.

That is the kind of spirit that has gotten Mississippi going back in the right direction. We still have a heck of a lot of work to do, but because of the good work done by the folks at the Stennis Space Center, William Brooks, Billy Cotter and so many others in south Mississippi, we are at least heading in the right direction.

I thank you very much for bringing this bill to the floor.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to speak out of order and to address the House for 5 minutes.

Mr. Speaker, on Wednesday of this week, Mr. Edward Rust, Jr., the CEO of State Farm Insurance Company, was supposed to be in Washington. I had hoped that I would have the opportunity to speak to him on behalf of the people of south Mississippi.

State Farm is one of three firms that for thousands of south Mississippians has denied their claims on wind policy, some of them for over $1 million; have said that they are not going to give a dime as a result of what happened at Hurricane Katrina.

Had Mr. Rust been there, I also would have had the opportunity to tell him that last Saturday I met with two whistleblowers, two sisters, Cori and Carey Rigsby, who walked away from jobs that paid well over $200,000 a year, investigating claims for State Farm, because they felt that company was abusing the people who paid for their policies, that their company was engaging in fraudulent behavior by denying these claims. Instead of being rewarded by that subcontractor to State Farm for telling the truth, they are being sued by that subcontractor for telling the truth.

So, Mr. Rust, if you had been there, I would have presented you with this letter, detailing what I think you have done to the taxpayers and to the people of south Mississippi. But since you were not there, I am going to put it in the Congressional Record and mail you a copy.

But there are two things I want you to know. You see, when you didn't pay people's wind claims in south Mississippi, you hurt them individually. You hurt average Joes like Joe Dee Benvenutti, who, interestingly enough, is also an insurance salesman; or guys like Mike Chapoton, who is a banker; or Dr. Leroy McFarland, who was my family's physician when I was a kid, and now in his 70s has been denied over $1 million claim.

But you also denied guys like Senator Trent Lott and U.S. Judge Lou Guirola. It is one thing to tell a banker or a former corrugated box salesman that you can't read a policy, but I think it is something else to tell a Federal judge that he couldn't read his policy, to tell a U.S. Senator with a law degree from the University of Mississippi apparently he can't read his policy.

If they are doing that to the average Joes, I am sorry, if they are doing that to the bigshots like U.S. Senators and Federal judges, then the question is, what are they doing to grandmothers?

What are they doing to corrugated box salesman? What are they doing to high school teachers who don't have a prayer and who have been told that their cases could take years to be heard?

Mr. Rust, you not only denied those people, but, in my opinion, you also stole from the taxpayers. Let me walk the taxpayers through this. Flood insurance is paid through you, the taxpayers. It is heavily subsidized this year to the tune of over $20 billion. According to the Rigsby sisters, your agents were instructed to walk on a piece of property, and, without looking at any of the evidence, blame it all on the water. It was all water; offer to pay that water claim immediately, and say, we will get back to you on the wind, knowing full well that an investigation would not take place on the wind policy, and that the only check those people are going to get would be from the taxpayers.

You see, that broke the law, because under the False Claims Act, when you ask your Nation to pay a bill that it should not pay, you are liable for triple damages and a $10,000-per-incident fine. I think that is exactly what went on. This House has passed language asking the inspector general of the Homeland Security Department to look into that. Unfortunately, the other body has not acted on that. Senator Lott, for his part, has passed the funding for that investigation for $3 million, but this House has not voted on that.

So, in return for your behavior towards the people of south Mississippi, where over 1,000 south Mississippi families feel like the only chance they have of any justice is to go to court, I am going to try to do three things in my time remaining as a Member of this House.

Number one, I am going to push for that investigation, because I am confident in my heart that you stole from the taxpayers when you did that.

The second thing is I am going to work to remove your antitrust exemption. I bet you it would surprise the average American to know that if the two hardware stores in town called each other up and said, let's charge this much money for a gallon of paint, if they were caught doing that, they would go to jail. But Allstate can call State Farm, who can call Nationwide, who can call Farm Bureau, and they can say, this is how much we are going to charge for an insurance premium, and this is what the benefit is going to be. Yes, let us all play hardball and not pay any claims. It is perfectly legal. Check my facts on that, it is perfectly legal.

Look at your own pay stub. I would guarantee probably that at least the fourth biggest expenditure in every American family is insurance. Do you want to know one reason why it is so expensive? There is no real competition. They are exempt from the antitrust laws. No one should be above the laws. I am going to work to take away that exemption.

Third thing is I am going to work to pass an all-peril policy so that the people of Mississippi, Florida, Alabama or Texas don't have to stay in their house with a video camera to record how their house was destroyed to get some justice out of you.

Lastly, I am going to work for Federal legislation because you have picked the States apart. You are picking on 50 little States, 50 sets of rules. You are taking advantage of the citizens of this country when you ought to be dealing with our Nation's government.

Mr. Speaker, I submit for printing in the Congressional Record a copy of a letter from me to Mr. Edward B. Rust, CEO, State Farm Insurance Companies, dated September 20, 2006.

House of Representatives,

Washington, DC, September 20, 2006.

Mr. Edward B. Rust, Jr.,

CEO, State Farm Insurance Companies, Bloomington, IL.

Dear Mr. Rust: I am writing to make you fully aware of the

consequences of the bad faith actions and policies that State

Farm has carried out against the people of South Mississippi

since Hurricane Katrina.

First, allow me to establish a few basic facts about

Katrina's damage in Mississippi. There is no property in

Mississippi that was damaged solely by flooding. More than

300,000 properties, including many that were hundreds of

miles inland, sustained wind damages but no flooding.

Properties nearest the coastline were damaged or destroyed by

some combination of hurricane winds and storm surge.

State Farm's assertion that hundreds of coastal homes were

destroyed without suffering any wind damage has been easily

and overwhelmingly refuted by every meteorologist, engineer,

eyewitness, or investigator who is not on the payroll of an

insurance company or an insurance company's contractor. Every

community on the Mississippi Coast suffered four or five

hours of high hurricane winds and powerful gusts before the

surge. High winds continued to cause additional damage during

the surge, and the wind and water in combination caused the

worst destruction.

State Farm recently reported that it has handled more than

84,700 property claims in Mississippi, yet requested

engineering reports for only 1,100 of the claims. Since

engineering reports are needed for the purpose of determining

whether damage was caused by wind or by water, State Farm

must have acknowledged that other 83,600 properties were

damaged by winds alone. In other words, State Farm has paid

claims for wind damage far inland where you could not blame

flooding, while denying wind claims on the coast where the

winds were much stronger, but where you could blame flooding.

Many homeowners near the coastline had flood insurance, but

not for the full value of their properties. Hundreds of

homeowners who bought every property insurance policy that

was available to them--homeowners, windstorm, and flood--

are nevertheless left with huge uncovered losses because

State Farm and other insurers have decided that only the

federal flood insurance program, and federal taxpayers,

should pay on homes that were destroyed by the combination

of wind and water.

State Farm's twisted legal argument that the anti-

concurrent causation language in your policies allows you to

deny wind claims, even where you acknowledge that wind was a

cause of the damage, is an especially cynical and despicable

act.

Your company's betrayal of its policyholders has had

horrible financial consequences for families and communities

at their time of greatest need. Some policyholders will file

bankruptcy and default on their mortgages. The lucky ones

will recover only after depleting their savings and

retirement accounts and assuming large new debts. Worst of

all, I fear that your actions will result in unnecessary

deaths in future disasters. If you succeed in establishing

that the burden of proof is on policyholders to prove that

wind and wind alone caused damage, I am convinced that some

people who should evacuate will stay behind next time to

record the damage.

State Farm and other insurers have contracts with the

National Flood Insurance Program that permit you to sell

flood policies and adjust flood claims that are backed by

federal taxpayers. When your adjusters assigned all damage to

flooding, I believe you committed fraud against the United

States government. State Farm's contract with NFIP obligates

your company to apply the same standards to flood claims as

you apply to your own claims. The federal regulations do not

empower you to assume flood damage anywhere it is possible,

while denying wind claims unless no other cause is possible.

I believe that State Farm and other companies violated the

False Claims Act by manipulating damage assessments to bill

the federal government instead of the companies. I have

written the Justice Department to recommend that the Katrina

Fraud Task Force investigate whether insurance companies

defrauded federal taxpayers by assigning damages to the

federal flood program that should have paid by the insurers'

wind policies.

In late June, the House approved my amendment to the Flood

Insurance Reform and Modernization Act to instruct the

Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security to

investigate the Katrina claims practices of the insurance

companies that adjusted flood claims. Sen. Trent Lott added a

similar provision to the Homeland Security Appropriations

Act.

Even before Katrina, I was an original cosponsor of

legislation introduced by Rep. Peter DeFazio to repeal the

antitrust exemption that was granted to the business of

insurance by the McCarran Ferguson Act. After Katrina, this

issue will be much higher on my agenda. It is obvious that

the large insurance companies conspired together to

manipulate the claims process. It also is clear that state

resources were inadequate to protect consumers from

underhanded insurance practices on such a large scale.

In the decades since enactment of McCarran Ferguson, the

federal government has assumed responsibility for insuring

some risks that the insurance industry refuses to cover.

Medicare and Flood Insurance are obvious examples. The

federal government also provides disaster assistance and

loans to individuals, businesses, and communities to help

offset their uninsured losses. It does not make sense for the

federal government to fill in the gaps left behind by the

insurance industry and yet have very little role in

regulating and investigating insurance companies and their

practices.

In the next session of Congress, I plan to press for a vote

on legislation to have the federal government take

responsibility for regulation of insurance. It is ridiculous

for the industry to claim that insurance is not ``interstate

commerce'' rightfully under federal jurisdiction when

companies stop issuing policies in New York and Florida

because of claims in Mississippi and Louisiana. Congress and

federal regulators should have clear responsibility for

oversight of the insurance industry.

I also pledge to work tirelessly to enact a natural

disaster insurance program that provides for all-perils

insurance coverage. There is no reasonable way to distinguish

the wind damage from the water damage from a major hurricane.

The worst destruction almost always results from the

combination of the two. The division of wind and flood

coverage guarantees that legal disputes will consume millions

and millions of dollars for engineering reports and legal

fees instead of going to pay damage claims.

I cannot support plans to provide federal reinsurance for

the current system that allows insurance companies to shift

their liabilities to taxpayers and property owners. Any

effort to provide a federal reinsurance backstop for

insurance losses must insist on elimination of the exclusions

and gaps in property coverage. Homeowners need to be able to

purchase insurance and know that disaster damage will be

covered.

Finally, I will continue to urge the leadership and my

colleagues in Congress to undertake detailed hearings and

investigations of insurance industry practices. Please know

that the actions of your company have helped make the case

that Congress and the federal government must move to

regulate and investigate your industry in order to protect

consumers and taxpayers.

Sincerely,

Gene Taylor,

Member of Congress.