Economic Justice Issues

Floor Speech

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Ms. TLAIB. Madam Speaker, today, I am representing the Congressional Progressive Caucus in our Special Order so that we can push forward on a number of agendas, especially on economic justice issues. I am really proud to join many of my colleagues today as we talk about housing for all across the United States of America.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. Omar).

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Ms. TLAIB. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Gomez).

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Ms. TLAIB. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Ocasio-Cortez), my good colleague.

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Ms. TLAIB. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer), my good colleague.

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Ms. TLAIB. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Evans), my good colleague.

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Ms. TLAIB. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Garcia), my good colleague.

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Ms. TLAIB. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Massachusetts (Ms. Pressley), my good colleague.

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Ms. TLAIB. Madam Speaker, I know from my district in Detroit and throughout the 11 other surrounding communities, for us, being the third poorest congressional district in the country, housing is critical, critical not only for economic stability, but also in providing a safe haven for many of our families across the district.

Poverty is complex. A number of factors, including State and Federal policy failures and racial and gender inequities, have resulted in so much increased poverty, especially among children. Adjusting poverty requires that deep public investment in housing and other infrastructure, healthcare access, and public school investment, coupled with criminal justice reform policies designed to repair a history of segregation and continued exploitation.

Less than a year, Madam Speaker, into its enactment, the opportunity zone program has already resulted in millions of dollars of wasteful spending and possible corruption.

From cities like Chicago and Baltimore to the city of Detroit, billionaires were able to divert public tax dollars through a tax break called the opportunity zone that was supposed to lead to access to housing for our most vulnerable in communities like mine.

Instead, Madam Speaker, what we heard from an investigative report-- ProPublica published an article, titled: ``How a Tax Break to Help the Poor Went to NBA Owner Dan Gilbert.'' The article contained disturbing details that suggest that opportunity zones that were in the Trump tax scam had designated census tracts that did not meet the legal criteria and that political donations and influence had overridden the law to reward donors with generous tax breaks supposedly intended to benefit the poor.

Madam Speaker, in the article, billionaire Dan Gilbert's Quicken Loans company donated $750,000 to President Trump's inauguration fund, hosted Ivanka Trump in 2017 for a panel discussion, and last year Dan Gilbert watched the midterm election returns at the White House with President Trump, who has called Gilbert ``a great friend.'' In return, Madam Speaker, three census tracts in downtown Detroit where Gilbert owns valuable property were selected for these large tax breaks through the opportunity zones.

According to ProPublica, multiple studies have found that property values in those zones increased because of this tax break. At least one of those census tracts did not meet the poverty requirement for being an opportunity zone and appears to have been designated solely due to political influence.

So, if we are going to talk about housing justice, we are going to talk about impacting and helping ensure that housing is a human right, we also need to take out the corruption and the political influence.

Email exchanges revealed Quicken executives working in concert with the White House to designate tracts with Gilbert's investments as opportunity zones. Madam Speaker, Quicken Loans lobbyists were directly involved in the selection process at every level, lobbying the city, State, and Federal officials to include Gilbert's investment zones in the opportunity zone law.

So I am asking us as we stand for housing for all that we need to restore public trust in our Federal Government which has been eroded with the rules that have been applied unevenly here and seem to reward the wealthiest and the best-connected among us. It appears that a tax program supposedly designed to benefit the poorest among us is now being used to reward political donors and wealthy investors.

I have asked the Committee on Ways and Means to investigate the actions by billionaire Dan Gilbert, and I have also asked the Treasury to respond to some of those questions.

This is why instead of these tax breaks for the wealthy and for billionaire-led development, I have proposed the BOOST Act.

The BOOST Act would give 3 to $6,000 to families making less than $100,000. It would instantly lift up 45 percent of Americans living in poverty now. Sixty-four million children would be instantly uplifted out of poverty. The BOOST Act would be paid for by repealing the Trump tax scam. In there, Madam Speaker, you saw not only the opportunity zones, but a number of tax breaks for the wealthy that only benefited the folks who are corporate-led who have actually been tainting our process to get access to affordable housing in this Chamber.

So I ask my colleagues, as we propose many fixes to access affordable housing and to repair some of the historic segregation zoning laws and the continued exploitation among many of our neighbors, that we also make sure that we are ensured that corruption within our government is not expanding and that we are holding those accountable who are trying to taint that process.

So I really appreciate my colleagues, members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, in standing strong for housing as a human right.

Many of the proposals you see forward, Madam Speaker, will only depend on whether or not we can implement it in a way that is just and is very democratic and, again, has really clear oversight. Things like the opportunity zone are not the direction that we need our country to go in, and I am looking forward to introducing legislation that would not only ask for repealing the opportunity zone but actually use it for land trust and community trust funds, things that will be rooted within communities and help those who, again, are seeing homeownership among communities of color decrease, seeing increases between 30 to 50 percent of their income going towards rent. I think the way we have to do it is all those goals, not only proposals, but also making sure that we are implementing it in a way that is just and fair.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green).

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Ms. TLAIB. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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