FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Sep 11                      

 CONTACT:  WALKER HENGST, DEPUTY CAMPAIGN MANAGER

 

CHANEY WELCOMES SUPPORT OF H.R.920

 

Republican nominee for Insurance Commissioner, Senator Mike Chaney, formally announces his endorsement of Gene Taylor’s Multiple Peril Insurance Act, H.R.920 which allows property owners to purchase wind and flood coverage in a single policy.

 

“I’ve openly supported the need for federal legislation to address the insurance crisis since the beginning of this campaign.  I formally endorsed the idea at the Neshoba County Fair in July,” said Chaney, “and I have repeated my support in speeches and conversations across the State.”  “I have discussed H.R.920 with Speaker Pelosi, Senator Trent Lott, Congressmen Gene Taylor and Chip Pickering, and Governor Barbour.  I continue to believe that the multi-peril insurance proposal now before Congress is the best hope of providing relief to homeowners and small business owners on the Gulf Coast.”

 

H.R.920 requires that the multiple peril insurance programs be actuarially sound and pay for themselves.  This program should also result in savings in future federal disaster assistance.  After Hurricane Katrina, the federal government has spent in excess of $20 billion dollars in housing assistance grants, rental assistance, temporary trailer housing, subsidized disaster loans, casualty loss tax deductions, and other assistance for property losses that were underinsured or were uncovered.  H.R.920 will collect premiums to cover many of those expenses legitimately, without needing lawyers, engineers, and adjusters to try and distinguish wind damage from water damage.  The improved insurance coverage will speed up the economic recovery of disaster areas while reducing the dependence on federal assistance.

 

“Too many homeowners and business are not rebuilding on the Gulf Coast because of the lack of available and affordable insurance” said Chaney.  “If you can’t get insurance, you can’t  finance it and if you can’t finance it you can’t build it.”  If homeowners and business can’t rebuild, you lose the tax base, if you lose the tax base, you lose the community…it’s that simple!”

 

“I am pleased that the National Association of Homebuilders and the Gulf Coast Business Council have joined in this by-partisan effort to support H.R.920 which is vital to the economic recovery of the Mississippi Gulf Coast,” added Chaney.

 

Senator Chaney is a key member of the Senate Insurance Committee and one of the architects of  the 2007 Windpool Insurance bill.  Chaney was named the 2007 Legislator of the Year by the Mississippi Homebuilders Association for his work in rebuilding the Coast following Hurricane Katrina.