mr. pascrell: thank you, madam speaker. ukrainian americans deeply desire a solution to the crisis which respects the fundamental rights of their sisters and brothers in ukraine to free speech, free press and peaceful assembly. it is my sincere hope that the united states can facilitate a peaceful resolution to the crisis in ukraine which respects the will of the ukrainian people and brings justice to those who have been harmed through wrongful arrest and violence. as we saw in syria, crackdowns on nonviolent protests can lead to an all-out civil war and we still do not do what we should be doing with those refugees from syria. that is a disgrace. we need to act now to help the people of ukraine before the violence escalates further. i urge my colleagues to join this vital show of support for the american people, to the people of ukraine, and thank you and i thank mr. engel and i thank mr. smith. thank you, madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from new jersey is recognized.

mr. pascrell. mr. pascrell: mr. chairman, i appeal to you to make this an urgent issue. urgency i think is very critical here. so i rise in opposition to the previous question so we can consider the homeowner flood insurance affordability act. in the wake of hurricane sandy, over 74,000 national flood insurance claims were submitted in new jersey from policy holders. $3.5 e, the nfip has paid billion in sandy claims and has served as a lifeline to thousands of new jersey residents whose lives were turned upside by the storm. the funds paid out through those claims have helped our neighbors rebuild homes, businesses, regardless of what political affiliation, persuasion. we were all affected by this. estimates indicate that the total cost of sandy will be $12 n $5 billion and billion. so it is true that we need to make changes to make sure that the nfip remains solvent. the rollout of the 2012 reforms to nfib have issues. i'm hearing from constituents in little ferry particularly, which were devastated by sandy. this is destroying property values, disrupting the real estat

mr. bill pascrell. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey is recognized for three minutes. mr. pascrell: thank you, mr. speaker. have the greatest respect for sincerely the good doctor. i think he's a reasonable man, a good person. but when you're explaining, you're losing. i rise in strong opposition to this legislation. after we learned last year about the inexcusable way the i.r.s. evaluated applications for tax-exempt status -- because that's what is at the heart of this issue -- i was hopeful we could have a bipartisan response. after all, it was not only conservative groups, as you've heard, that had their applications sing naled out simply because of words -- signaled out simply because of words tea party, quote-unquote, no one is disagreeing about that. progressive groups were filtered as well. my democratic colleagues and i were equally outraged by this behavior. we put it on the record. but those hopes faded quickly when it became apparent that my colleagues on the other side w