Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Chairman, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment.

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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, for more than 20 years, I have been an adamant supporter of HOPWA. I share many of Mr. Price's concerns about the outdated formula for how HOPWA funding is allocated. However, I cannot support this amendment.

The current formula's reliance on cumulative AIDS cases is problematic and does need to be updated to better reflect the new reality of the incidence of the disease.

Mr. Price's proposal, while well intended, will just shift scarce resources around, cutting off thousands of current beneficiaries to move the money to different parts of the country.

If the amendment changed the formula for new HOPWA funds, if there were new HOPWA funds, it would be more acceptable, but the amendment would shift existing funds on which people now rely.

New York City is a stark example. This formula change would eventually cut the city's annual HOPWA funding by nearly 25 percent. That cut would translate into real people.

A quarter of New Yorkers living with AIDS and currently receiving HOPWA support for their housing would be thrown out of their homes. We are talking about people living with AIDS with HOPWA support being ousted from their present homes.

I understand that people in many areas living with AIDS need housing, but Congress should be focused on growing HOPWA and expanding the number of people enrolled in the program, not on throwing more people living with AIDS out of their present homes.

If people living with AIDS in Mr. Price's district and in other districts need more HOPWA funding--and they do--Congress should provide it to them without depriving people living with AIDS in New York, Atlanta, and San Francisco of their existing housing.

Rather than shifting around limited pools of money and helping homeless people in one part of the country by creating more homelessness in another part of the country, we should be increasing funding for HOPWA to meet the actual needs of the people living with AIDS in the United States.

That is why every year I offer an amendment to the T-HUD appropriations bill increasing HOPWA funding and will continue to do so.

I recognize Mr. Price's hard work and long years of advocacy for HOPWA, but I cannot support this amendment as written today.

I hope that, going forward through regular legislative order, we can identify a fair, equitable formula update that does not harm current beneficiaries, that is to say, harm people living with AIDS because of their HOPWA funding in their homes today.

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Mr. NADLER. I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina.

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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Chairman, do I have 1 minute remaining?

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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Quigley).

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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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