ms. landrieu: wonderful. thank you. i'm going to speak on the bill that's before us, and i really appreciate the cooperation of so many members last night that voted to move forward on the debate of the fix to biggert-waters. we had a very strong, very impressive vote. i think 83 members, republicans and democrats, came together from all parts of the country, from all different areas and districts and backgrounds to vote to move forward on the debate on flood insurance, and i'm really grateful. we have been working on this for about a year and a half. it's been a tough slog because two years ago, a bill called biggert-waters was passed, named after the two cosponsors in the house, congresswoman biggert and congresswoman waters, who passed a bill with very good intentions, thinking that they were going to strengthen the flood insurance program. the bill had wonderful intentions, but unfortunately the way it was finally drafted in the conference committee, it's had disastrous results. and some of us knew that two years ago and started working literally the moment the bill, the conference bill was passed to begin changing it. an