Florida Senate - 2014                        COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
       Bill No. SM 1298
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                Ì640820tÎ640820                         
       
                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
                    Senate             .             House              
                  Comm: RCS            .                                
                  03/21/2014           .                                
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       Domestic Security (Legg) recommended the following:
       
    1         Senate Amendment (with title amendment)
    2  
    3         Delete everything after the resolving clause
    4  and insert:
    5         That the Congress of the United States is urged to pass the
    6  Disaster Savings Accounts (DSA) Act of 2014, sponsored by United
    7  State Representative Dennis Ross and United States Senator Jim
    8  Inhofe, which allows individuals a deduction for amounts that
    9  are contributed to disaster savings accounts and used for
   10  disaster mitigation expenses.
   11  BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
   12  dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
   13  President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
   14  United States House of Representatives, and to each member of
   15  the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.
   16  
   17  ================= T I T L E  A M E N D M E N T ================
   18  And the title is amended as follows:
   19         Delete everything before the resolving clause
   20  and insert:
   21                        A bill to be entitled                      
   22         A memorial to the Congress of the United States,
   23         urging Congress to pass the Disaster Savings Accounts
   24         Act to encourage the mitigation of property damage and
   25         costs before a natural disaster strikes.
   26  
   27         WHEREAS, Florida carries more hurricane risk than all of
   28  its neighboring “hurricane alley” states combined, and
   29         WHEREAS, Florida, which represented less than 6 percent of
   30  the national population in 2011, accounts for about 40 percent
   31  of the total number of policies issued by the National Flood
   32  Insurance Program, and
   33         WHEREAS, Florida, with its unique hurricane and flood
   34  risks, ranks among the most expensive in the nation for
   35  homeowners insurance, and
   36         WHEREAS, mitigation programs and improvements produce safer
   37  structures and reduce the impact of natural disasters, thereby
   38  reducing property damage, loss of life, insurance rates, and
   39  other costs associated with disasters, and
   40         WHEREAS, research shows that every dollar invested in
   41  mitigation results in 4 to 7 times that amount in savings, and
   42         WHEREAS, disaster mitigation projects produce jobs in the
   43  manufacturing and construction sectors, and
   44         WHEREAS, tax-preferred savings accounts encourage
   45  homeowners to fortify their homes, mitigate against future
   46  natural disasters, and invest in their own safety, and
   47         WHEREAS, the Disaster Savings Accounts Act of 2014,
   48  proposed in H.R. 3989 and S. 1991, is a market-based solution to
   49  empower homeowners against natural disaster risks, and
   50         WHEREAS, the Disaster Savings Accounts Act of 2014 was
   51  introduced to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and to
   52  allow individuals a deduction for amounts contributed to
   53  disaster savings accounts to help defray the cost of preparing
   54  their homes to better withstand a disaster, NOW, THEREFORE,