Ron Klein

Mr. KLEIN of Florida

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Melancon).

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Mr. Chairman, may I inquire as to the time we have remaining.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Wexler).

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney).

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz).

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Line 6, section c.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield 6\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mahoney).

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. I thank the gentleman from Illinois, and I do appreciate the fact in our committee, the Committee on Financial Services, you had a number of interesting inquiries, some of which were incorporated and some are still a work in progress. I will be more than happy to sit down, as this bill goes through the process. Obviously the Senate is going to begin to consider this bill. There will be opportunity through the conference, and I think there should be an opportunity to take a closer look at this issue.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. I thank the gentleman from Illinois. The notion of the terms of repayment are to be negotiated with the Treasury. Each State may have a slightly different scenario in terms of terms and conditions. What I would expect to be negotiated would be, just like any other private sector contract with a set of covenants and defaults in terms of understanding what the expectations are. So I would expect the Treasury, and if we need to get that clarified in the future, I would be happy to, but I expect the terms to be very clear regarding notification and things like that.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. I thank the gentleman from Illinois. I think the thinking is this is an authorization. It is not an appropriation. The general notion is in the early stage of this thing, it is a relatively small amount of dollars. It creates authorization if necessary. If you have a number of States that do participate, which we anticipate, I think the language of the bill talks about the fact that they will pay for that. The notion is there is an authorization. And to get more States involved to pay for it, there is this limited amount of Federal responsibility. I think the thinking is that the States will take responsibility.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. I am a true believer, if you give somebody 5 years to do it, it will take 5 years. At the same time I realize from the experience we have had in Florida and many other States that have tried to move forward with building codes and other things, it does take some time. But I am all for encouraging as strong as possible to move as quickly as possible.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Reclaiming my time, I thank the gentleman, and look forward to working with him on that issue. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I thank the gentleman from California. Although we are from different parts of the country and sort of the extreme points of the country, we share, along with many people in other quarters of the country, the same problem; and it is a problem with dealing with these large-scale natural disasters which are difficult to predict and, at the higher end, difficult to insure. Whether it is mud slides or wildfires or earthquakes or tornadoes or major floods or hurricanes or blizzards or any number of other things which cause very large-scale damage, we need to find a way to come together and resolve this, which is what, of course, this plan is trying to do. What the gentleman has proposed, and is something I think we should all recognize, is the fact that earthquakes don't distinguish between a house and an office building, or a house and an apartment building, or any other number of commercial or private structures. I think the notion here of trying to, again, pool interests is something that deserves a lot of attention. I would like to pose a notion to the gentleman. I know the Chair of Financial Services has mentioned that he would like to hold a hearing, because as we developed this, we were pretty close to certain this would work with the residential property community, and even put something in the bill at the gentleman's request about the multi-family properties as well, because I think that is a big issue. As it relates to the broader issue, I think we want to continue to investigate this, to understand from the Congressional Budget Office's point of view, making sure that, as this does meet PAYGO, we want to make sure this continues to meet PAYGO; and I think if we were to adopt this amendment, I think there would be some question about that. If the gentleman would respond as to whether he would withdraw the amendment now, with the commitment, I think from chairman of the Financial Services Committee, to, number one, hold a hearing and bring all the necessary information together and continue to work on this, whether it is in this piece of legislation as it moves to the Senate, or we all work together on another piece of legislation to deal with the same issue.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. I yield to the gentleman from California.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Mr. Chairman, what has just been expressed by our colleagues from around the country is that this is a time for action on an issue that is well overdue. There have been many parts of the country that have been hit by this insurance problem for a long time. But I can tell you that whether you are in the State legislature, like I was in the past, or in the Congress, or in any local government, or even a lot of businesses, a lot of times when you want to study something and you want to put it on the shelf and collect dust, it is not going anywhere. This particular provision, this particular idea sounds nice. It says, oh, we are going to study this and we're going to study that and have qualified people come together. Well, do you know something? That is what we have been doing. We have been bringing together qualified people. We have spent a lot of time, bipartisan, a lot of experts in the field, consumer groups and experts on Wall Street and people in the industry to really figure out what is the right way to do this. Is this perfect? I don't know. But we have certainly tried to do what we think is common sense and we are moving in the right direction. The notion of studying it and coming back, and this particular provision says coming back on June 1 of 2008 with a report which will then be presented to the Financial Services Committee, which will then hold hearings and more hearings and more hearings, and then it will end up in the Senate, we are talking about 2015 before they even bring a bill up. Well, we have something here today that is a bill. It is an idea, a set of ideas that have been developed, and we are ready to move on it. And the people back home are ready for us to move it. They want action. They want relief from their insurance bills. They want to know as taxpayers there is a better way of doing this than the Federal Government writing a check every time. That is what this bill does. So with all due respect to those folks who say, let's study it more, it hasn't been studied enough, yes, it has. It has been studied enough. And we will continue to study it when it goes over to the Senate. But we are looking to make a bill, finalize a bill here in the House today. Let the Senate take it up over the next couple of months and let's get some relief to the homeowners of the United States when it comes to their homeowners insurance. Mr. Chairman, I yield back my time.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I would like to thank the gentlelady from Florida on this work on price-gouging. She and I served in the legislature in Florida and worked together with many others on price-gouging legislation. I don't think anybody can condone any kind of price-gouging in a natural disaster or at any other time, but certainly in a time of a natural disaster. What the amendment to the amendment does is it provides some flexible language in the implementation of this. It certainly is something that we want to encourage States to move forward on as part of their eligibility, but recognizing we also want to make sure we're not creating impediments in terms of many States getting involved in the natural disaster consortium as quickly as possible. So I am in full support of this flexibility language, and that's exactly what the amendment does.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment to the amendment.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H. Res. 435, a resolution that I authored with my friend, Mr. Mack. This resolution expresses the concern of the House of Representatives about the growing national security implications of Iran's relationships with countries in the Western Hemisphere. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has visited Latin America three times in the past year, and has signed agreements with several countries in the region worth billions of dollars. This is a strategic move on his part to build capabilities in our neighborhood. On one side of the word, Iran continues to make progress on its nuclear program. And, on this side of the world, Iran has tried to sway leaders into supporting this dangerous agenda. And so far, his strategy is gaining momentum, which is extremely alarming. Iranian involvement in Latin America is particularly concerning, especially considering Iran's history in places like Argentina. This week, Interpol, the world's law enforcement agency, will consider whether to uphold the arrest warrants for five Iranians and one Lebanese who planned and executed the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center. Argentines are still waiting for justice to be served against those responsible, and Hizbollah and Iran are the lead suspects. I also remain concerned about Hizbollah in our hemisphere as it relates to fundraising in the tri-border area, and other places. In fact, just last month, Admiral Jim Stavreedees, head of the U.S. Southern Command wrote, ``We consider Latin America and the Caribbean as being highly likely bases for future terrorist threats to the U.S. and others.'' The region has seen some progress, with new anti-terrorism legislation and increased counter-terrorism efforts. But, we all have a long way to go. Eliminating the threat of terrorism and its state sponsors is not just in the best interest of the United States. The countries in our hemisphere will be safer. The United States and Central and Latin America have an aligned interest. I hope that this resolution is seen as a signal that the United States is willing to help our friends in Central and Latin America make their countries safer and free from terrorism.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on H.R. 3355 and to insert extraneous material thereon.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Clerk be authorized to make technical corrections in the engrossment of H.R. 3355, to include corrections in spelling, punctuation, section numbering, cross-referencing, and amendatory instructions, and the insertion of appropriate headings.