sampson. we appreciate your testimony and we will have questions after we get done with the testimony of the other panelists. but thank you for your perspective and for your testimony. next we have mr. john a. jensen. serves as government affairs committee chairman of the independent insurance agents and brokers of america. and as president of corel insurance group. he is currently the south carolina national director for independent insurance agents and brokers in america. he is a past chairman of the independent insurance brokers of america. want to welcome you today, mr. jensen. you may proceed with your testimony. >> thank you very much. good morning, chairman tester and ranking member vitter. i am pleased to be here today on behalf of the independent insurance brokers of america or the big i to present our perspective on the extension and reform of the nfip. we commend the subcommittee for looking at is this very important issue. i am president of corel insurance group which is an agency

sampson? >> they've already started. >> why don't you describe some of that and when that starts. >> 60 days out from the expiration of the program insurers are required to notify holders of policies that the coverage is going to be ending. and then, as i said, it has a cascading -- lawyer the lapse, there is this whole cascading series of very complicated brejing tlans actions that add no value. but onlies could and uncertainty to the -- >> you have the national flood insurance program actively advertising the nfip on television, to increase the takeup rate, which is the socially responsible thing to do, yet everyone who has a policy knows the number of disruptions that we've experienced over the last several years. and so we're really sending cross signals here and these lapses are causing companies to exit the program and i'm convinced that these continual lapses create such uncertainty in the policyholder that it reduces and suppresses the takeup rate and the renewal rate. >> i seem part o

sampson. >> it's a pleasure to be with you today. i appreciate your leadership on this issue and for the invitation to be here. pci and its members who write about 52% of all the flood insurance with partners through nfip believe it vitally important to the economy. flooding occurs all across the country and we fully support your efforts to pass bipartisan legislation that includes long-term authorization and meaningful reforms. i'd like to emphasize three key points in my testimony today. it is vitally important to avoid a lapse in the nfip. second, as confirmed by the government accountability office, the program needs meaningful structural reforms. and, third, privatization of the flood program is not feasible under current conditions. let me expand on those a little bit. the first priority of course is to avoid a lapse in coverage. you've already documented your concern about that. more than 5.6 million homeowners, renters and businesses are nfip policy holders and rely on this to protect

actually your address was jackson between mont dwommery and sampson.re so few people here. >> everybody knew who everybody was. this might have been on the wharf. we're right at the edge of the bay. if we take a look you can see on the alley here, this curvy line, which is one of the indicators of the edge of the bay, many of the streets down in this part of town were originally wharfs. >> the ships would come in forÑa few years until the '4 9 gold rush they would offload and theseñr were wharfÑi house buildings. gold hit and the ships never left. >> so we're talking about earthquake issues and how the soils affect the earthquake stability of your home and building. here we'reÑi on an area which ws filled there is in the engineer filled. nobody figured out we need to exact it. it was filled with old ships and this sort of stuff. there's endless reminders -- in fact, i want to point out this is an old self--styled snrash block and carried -- splash block and carried water off the edge of the sidewalk. this is the edge of the sidewalk right here. >> ther

sampson also served in the george w. bush administration. as deputy secretary of the u.s. department of congress and assistant secretary of commerce for economic development. welcome, dr. samson. >> thank you, mr. chairman. it's a pleasure to be with you today. i appreciate your leadership on this issue. and for the invitation to be here. pci and its members who write about 52% of all the flood insurance through the nfip write your own coalition program. it doesn't just affect one part of the nation. flooding occurs all across the country. and we fully support your efforts to pass bipartisan legislation that includes a long-term authorization and meaningful reforms. i'd like to just emphasize three key points in my testimony today. first, it is vitally important to avoid another lapse in the nfip as lapses have real-world negative consequences for consumers and the economy. second, as confirmed by the government accountability office, the program needs meaningful structural reforms. and third, privatization of the flood program is not feasible under current conditions. let

sampson or mr. jensen either the two were that all of the freakin' document this but the solvency of the program, could you discuss some areas where reform of this bill is important to the constituencies that you represent, what else does it provide? >> thank you, senator. in addition to the reform as you mentioned there are some issues with increasing the maximum coverage limits. currently the coverage leverett on the home is for full of the elite of love lost hundred $50,000. that is increasingly becoming a problem and issue as we see the higher values and homes again. as well, we are looking at business interruption. it's important to know that there is a study called for in the bill that talks about business coverage within the commercial sector. we see if it's very valuable as well. islamic in addition you heard testimony on the previous panel of the folks that were placed in areas that in fact were not in the flood plain. some of the things that would have been in the streamlining would be the

right now joining us is liz sampson. liz, what are we exactly looking at here? >> you're looking at a 3-d printer. it's replicating rapid prototyping machine so what it does it takes plastic, several different types of plastic and heats it up within this unit and then lays down layer upon layer of this plastic into forms, and can you create using different 3-d modeling programs, different types of objects that you can print at home. >> that's unreal. >> and a machine anybody can make. >> kind of one demo of hundreds of different demos that will be out here where people can actually touch and create themselves and also learn about what's going on. now, where did you get this idea from, real quick? >> well, you know, we saw one of the machines, and so we joined the bay area group and learned more about making the machines, and this is one that i've built at home, and i also sell them. >> and you're making a bobblehead of me right now, right? >> i am. >> all right. >> tt's going to be one big bobblehead. >> let's go ahead and get a look at the weather graphic. liz

sampson. one child's life on the go. video on demand on t.v.'s my old costs and says feeds now in the palm of your.

. >> that was the commercial for sampson. >> that was the only time i saw inned yeps crying when you littered. >> he was actually an italian. >> i used to watch f troop and when you look back at the reruns it is an italian guy. >> way to take this topic seriously. >> now tell us about tonto. >> you know what indians were against? gay marriage. they didn't have gay marriage in the indian species. >> have you no evidence. >> there is no way that is true. they wore assless chaps. >> n can we try to draw this back? >> come on, greg. >> should native americans be outraged about this? she is making a mom reof their heritage by -- a mockery of their her taj. >> what if i claimed indian status? it would be clear. >> even back then when she was going college and applying, isn't even today a woman still minority? why did she have to check the american indian box too? >> it was cool to do and you are right. check boxing is -- i like check boxing. >> i like gay porn myself. >> what do you make of this whole thing? >> if you look back there is a story of the great, great, grandmother who checked

was in beirut, we were coming across suitcase where is groups there were putting in the walls of sampson ite suitcases. >> so petn has been around for a long time. >> it's the most dangerous bomb to use against airplanes. some of them were heroin smugglers and they had been putting heroin in the linings of suitcases but they switched over for the terrorist groups and put in petn and it's very complicated making these things, and the fact that these have been reintroduced into this milieu again is what's so dangerous. because, you know, as we have said the other night, as fran said, one of these things are going to get through. and unless we keep going the way we are with these operations. >> we have tried to be as responsible as we can in reporting this. that's why we wanted all three of you to have direct experience in all three of these things. i appreciate the sensetivity of it. coming up, voters in north carolina today deciding the fate of an amendment banning same-sex marriage, and all same-sex civil unions and partnerships. and a fiery sermon a few weeks ago said to punch their son

. >>> it's a joyful reunion for tim sampson.d their day in costa rica and just arrived in houston. >> so tell us why you decided to travel with your pets. >> they are my kids. they travel with me, go wherever i go. >> if you're four-legged family member is going on your next trip, a visit with your vet should be the first step. >> hi. >> hi. >> dr. sorenson checked my dog astro. >> if you're going probably for either it be car or air, you would want to have a copy of maybe their most recent medical records, their vaccination history, rabies histories. >> take a photo of your pet in case you get separated. >> make sure they have an identification tag on them that has their contact information of where you will be when they are on vacation. >> this can ensure that your furry friend comes home safe. >> they didn't mind the trip at all. >> the next time you are on the go. >>> little goody toothes. this is atlanta. this got me going. i'm awake now. >> i wasn't before but that really did it. that was from my teenage years. >> we've be

sampson or mr. jensen or any of you -- could you discuss some areas where reform on this bill is important to the constituencies you represent? what else does it provide? >> thank you, senator. in addition to the reform, as you mentioned, there are issues with increasing maximum coverage limits. currently, the coverage limit on a home for flood loss is $250,000. that is increasingly becoming a problem and an issue as we see higher values in homes again. as well, we are looking at business interruption. it is important to note that there is a study called for in the bill that talks about business interruption coverage within the commercial sector. we think that is very valuable as well. >> in addition, you and heard testimony from folks that were place in areas that were not in the flood plain. some of the things that might happen would be the ability for folks not in those areas to be charged in those areas and have an opportunity to be reimbursed on an expense-basis to the nfip, which would help fo

sampson or mr. jensen or all of you can talk to this, but beyond improving the program, can you discuss some areas where reform on this bill are important to the constituencies that you represent, what else does it provide? >> thank you, senator. in addition to the reform, as you mentioned, there are some issues with increasing maximum coverage limits. currently, the coverage limit on a home is for flood loss is $250,000 as a maximum indemnity limit. that is increasingly becoming a problem and an issue as we see higher values in homes again. as well, we are looking at business interruption, it's important to note that there is a study called for in the bill that talks about business interruption coverage within the commercial sector. we think that's very valuable as well. >> in addition, you heard testimony on the previous panel of folks that were placed in areas that, in fact, were not in a floodplain. some of the things that might happen would be in the streamlining would be the ability for folks