Roger Wicker's Maiden Senate Speech

The Sun Herald has consistently reported he would make Hurricane Katrina recovery the major part of his speech and they were true to their words. Perhaps Congressman Taylor now has a true champion for the multi peril concept in the Senate. Without further analysis here is the insurance exerpt of Senator Wicker's maiden Senate speech:

Much has been done, but there is much left to do.

Chairman Donald Powell, the Federal Coordinator for the Office of Gulf Coast rebuilding, acknowledged these challenges last week when he announced he was stepping down. He said it would be "some time before the area recovered."

I say this to my colleagues in the United States Senate: Katrina is not over. There are tall hurdles still to overcome. There is more the United States Congress must do.

The most urgent issue facing the Mississippi Gulf Coast is insurance. If you can't insure it, you can't build it or finance it. The rising cost of insurance cripples the efforts of small businesses, increases the cost of home-ownership, and drives rental rates beyond affordability.

This is not just an issue for Mississippi. From Bar Harbor, Maine to Brownsville, Texas, millions of Americans live near the coastline, in the path of a future hurricane. For many years, insurance companies have refused to offer insurance protection for water damage caused by hurricanes; this led to the creation of the National Flood Insurance Program. After Katrina, the most important question for a homeowner or a small businessman was "wind or water?"

Wind versus water. That is the debate which still occurs today in courtrooms on the Mississippi Gulf Coast between insurance companies and storm victims.

This debate is what necessitated the multi-billion dollar supplemental appropriations package this body approved after Katrina, and unless Congress changes the law, the wind versus water debate will result in a multi-billion dollar supplemental appropriations package after the next big hurricane - wherever it may land.

Even worse, since Katrina, it is also common practice for insurance companies to not offer wind insurance at a rate that is even close to affordable. This is driving more and more homeowners and business owners into a state-sponsored wind pool, which acts as an insurer of last resort. But this is not a reasonable long-term solution, because too much risk is being placed in a too small of a pool.

The best solution available is to allow homeowners to purchase wind and flood insurance coverage in the same policy.

This will not only help the storm victims so they can know their hurricane damage will be covered; it also will protect the United States taxpayer. The American people are the most generous in the world, and their elected representatives will continue to respond to natural disasters, whether it is a hurricane on the East Coast or an earthquake in California, with supplemental disaster appropriations packages. But the size of these packages will be smaller if more people have insurance.

As a member of the House, I voted for Congressman Gene Taylor's multi-peril insurance legislation when it passed last September. I am committed to achieving the same success here in the Senate.

Gene Taylor Issues + Answers Lecture

Gene Taylor's issue + answers lecture at USM Gulf Park was a well attended event. Besides Congressman Taylor, Senatorial hopeful Ronnie Musgrove, State Senator David Baria and Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney were in attendance. While I organize my thoughts and before I give my personal impressions, I'll post the Sun Herald story along with the actions of our fellow blogger and friend Steve, aka Topbanana, who shouted down an insurance agent that heckled Congressman Taylor. The agent in question was forcibly removed from the premises by campus security while Steve received a round of applause from the crowd for shutting the guy up.

This news story contains a factual inaccuracy, HR 3121 does not repeal the McCarran Ferguson anti trust exemption. sop

Taylor asks residents to act

Wants support for multi-peril coverage

By MICHAEL A. BELL

Continuing his fierce pursuit of federal multi-peril insurance, U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor on Friday urged South Mississippians to flood senators with e-mails, letters and phone calls in support of a bill that would allow property owners to purchase both wind and flood insurance under one policy.

"We're all in this together," he told hundreds at the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast Campus.

Taylor's lecture, "The Insurance Crisis: A Case for Multi-Peril Coverage," was part of the Issues + Answers series sponsored by the school and the Sun Herald.

The U.S. House has approved multi-peril insurance. But the legislation faces heavy opposition in the Senate.

"We need our senators to champion this issue," said Taylor, who's trying to convince senators to support the addition of wind coverage to the National Flood Insurance Program.

Taylor argued insurance agents who probed the post-Katrina wreckage blamed the damage on wind. "I think the taxpayers got hosed on that," he said. "Insurance is killing us."

He said the private insurance industry made nearly $50 billion the year Katrina hit, then nearly $70 billion in 2006.

But people stuck in FEMA trailers - "42,000 little cubicles of love," he quipped - continue to grapple with recovery.

"A lot of people are hesitant to rebuild," he said. "And that's not a good thing for our country."

He argued his bill would provide peace of mind to residents that they won't have to prove wind or water caused property damage.

"You don't have that lingering feeling that 'maybe I ought to stay behind with a video camera and have some evidence'," he said.

He added his bill would no longer exempt the insurance industry from anti-trust laws.

Former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove and current Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney attended Taylor's presentation.

Taylor's 60-minute speech was followed by a standing ovation and a Q&A session.

One woman asked how much Taylor's policy would cost if it were approved by the Senate.

"The answer is, 'We don't know,'" Taylor said, adding the coverage would be optional. "But it's got to pay for itself."

Kenneth Trawick, 76, of Gulfport called the insurance industry a "runaway group of thieves" and thanked the congressman.