Santos: FEMA decision on flood insurance needs review

Santos

ROTA—“When a policy decision piles hardship against families in a small island community, it’s time revisit the genesis of the matter in the interest of ensuring that it doesn’t suffocate or displace our people unnecessarily, “ said Sen. Terista Santos (R-Rota).

Santos alluded to a letter she sent to the regional administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Region IX that ruled some three years ago that homeowners in some areas on Rota are flood prone and thus the need to buy flood insurance policies.

Santos said the decision “misses the fact that some of the houses are situated in high grounds” therefore the requirement of home insurance is irrelevant. “It’s understood for homes located in lower lying areas but those in high elevation makes the requirement ludicrous”, she said.

“The decision inadvertently places more families to endure hardship back home where the cost of living is triple the cost here in the business center,” she noted. “Policy decisions are supposed to enhance the livelihood of our people not the reverse.”

“It should also be remembered that the family unit is the strongest institution anywhere in the world so let not a misperceived policy serve as a tool of familial hardship,” she said. “I’m optimistic it could be resolved forthwith”.

“This and other policies hailing from federal agencies that threaten our way of life definitely deserve critical review by both sides of the Pacific Divide,” Santos noted. “It raises the urgency of the much sought 902 Talks so we review federal policies issued by what’s known as the ‘Administrative State’ manned by people we never elected into office yet whose work product can’t even be amended by the U.S. Congress.”

“A perfect example of willful imposition of a disruptive federal policy is the acquisition of an enormous amount of public land for wild life at the expense of our way of life that includes farming,” she pointed out. “This policy must receive critical review in the interest of the people I represent for I don’t recall being elected by wildlife creatures.”

“DNLR must work with Region IX’s fish and wildlife and begin exploring translocation of wildlife to places like Sariguan in the north where they could propagate abundantly”, she said. “There’s nobody up there so why not bring Rota’s wildlife there where conditions are basically the same.

“It’s time that we begin actively and proactively working jointly with Washington on matters where federal policies do threaten to interfere, inhibit or even violate the cultural heritage of our people”, she noted. “It’s also timely that we collectively join the request of the late governor for the revival of the 902 Talks.”

Santos further noted an article in National Affairs, a quarterly journal in Washington, D.C., explaining a ruling by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas who called into question “the constitutionality of the massive and largely unaccountable bureaucracy commonly referred to as the administrative state.

“In bold and clear prose, Thomas explained how the basic principles of our Constitution’s separation of powers are incompatible with the system of bureaucratic rule that took root in the Progressive era and now reaches into virtually every realm of American life”, said Santos.

National Affairs is a quarterly journal of essays about domestic policy, political economy, society, culture, and political thought. It aims to help Americans think a little more clearly about our public life, and rise a little more ably to the challenge of self-government.