CEI Blasts Klein Hearings On Homeowners’ Defense Act

Contact:     
Eli Lehrer, 202.615.0586
Christian Camara, 305.608.4300

CEI Blasts Klein Hearings On Homeowners’ Defense Act
Plan Would Spend Taxpayer Money to Bail Out the Rich

Tallahassee, Florida., July 2, 2009—The Florida Office Director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s insurance project and the project’s overall head today sharply criticized Rep. Ron Klein’s hearings on his “Homeowners’ Defense Act.”

Klein’s bill, the “Homeowners’ Defense Act,” (H.R. 2555), sets up a government-run reinsurance entity and provides loan guarantees to state-run markets. CEI, along with a broad coalition of environmental, taxpayer, free-market, building safety and insurance groups has argued that the approach will undermine the private market, damage the environment, and impose nearly limitless liabilities on federal taxpayers.  

“These hearings are really more of a propaganda exercise than anything else” said Eli Lehrer, the Director of CEI’s Center for Risk, Regulation and Markets. “Rep. Klein failed to ask a single outspoken opponent of his bill to testify. That’s his right, of course, but it shows how pointless these hearings really are.”

“Re. Klein wants to spend taxpayer money to bail out the rich,” says CEI Florida Insurance Project Director Christian Camara. “His proposals simply won’t work and they’ll cost a lot of taxpayer money.”