The Baton Rouge Advocate reports that the National Flood Insurance Program paid more than $200,000 in repairs on a house purchased for $30,000 seven years ago, but that has been flooded 15 times since.

And a GAO review of 479 crop-insurance claims made by the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation to drought-stricken Texas in 1997 found that 351 were questionable, resulting in $6 million in overpayments to farmers.

A study by the National Wildlife Federation found that between 1978 and 1995, properties that had at least two $1,000 flood losses in any ten-year period represented only 2 percent of insured homes, but claimed over 40 percent of the payments. Over 5,500 property owners collected more than the total value of their houses, with one Texan collecting $807,000 on a house worth $114,000 in 16 claims that were spread over 18 years.

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