Lowering Housing Costs and Advancing Main Street Community Banks

Floor Speech

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Mr. HARIDOPOLOS. Mr. Speaker, today, we rise to discuss the important issue of home affordability.

As you just saw on this floor, we passed, with bipartisan support, led by our chairman of the Committee on Financial Services, French Hill, from the great State of Arkansas, a bill, with a 390-9 vote, to promote the idea of home affordability, the ultimate American Dream. Sadly, as we have recognized over the last few years, that dream has become further and further away for too many Americans.

Starting today, we are moving in the right direction so that we might reduce those barriers to affordability and simply rely on the great economic mission of increasing supply to reduce the cost.

Our first speaker tonight is from the State of Kentucky and serves on our Committee on Financial Services.

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Mr. HARIDOPOLOS. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Barr for mentioning higher construction costs, more regulatory delays, outdated zoning laws, and, of course, the desperate need for more community banks in the process.

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Mr. HARIDOPOLOS. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Stutzman for his comments.

Mr. Speaker, as discussed, one of the major issues which caused the housing affordability crisis in America is simply the fact of the last 4 years at least 10 million people have come into this country illegally, and it has caused the reality that when you have too much demand and not enough supply, prices go up.

We are pleased that we are meeting that demand and we are doing it in a commonsense way by reducing those barriers to entry, whether it be through banks, duplicate regulations, or the zoning laws that simply don't work. This is good work by our chairman of the Committee on Financial Services. Chairman Hill and Chairman Flood of the Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance have really made a difference.

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Mr. HARIDOPOLOS. Mr. Speaker, as we address these issues that you saw from the poster board, illegal immigration has a true cost, whether it be increasing demand, let alone the vital services that are strained under that increased number of people in a very short period of time.

I yield to the gentleman from Montana (Mr. Downing), who also serves on the Financial Services Committee.

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Mr. HARIDOPOLOS. Mr. Speaker, I thought the gentleman's words were spot on, simply getting the government out of the way. This is not about spending. This is about common sense and releasing the idea of the American free market system. It really shows the support this bill has by again a 390-9 vote. There is a great level of support for this bipartisan effort. We are simply increasing supply in order to reduce costs.

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Mr. HARIDOPOLOS. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Crank for putting in perspective the true cost due to government regulations and red tape.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the good words of Mr. Mackenzie and putting in perspective what folks in Pennsylvania face every day because of the rising housing costs through the years.

As I get ready to close, Mr. Speaker, I want to thank, first of all, again Chairman Hill. I have the pleasure of being in that committee, and it is so exciting to see a chairman who brings everyone together in a bipartisan fashion to pass commonsense legislation.

What has been highlighted throughout the day today is the fact that it is not about spending more money, it is about reducing the regulatory burden that has caused prices to rise so rapidly as Congressman Crank brought up in the State of Colorado.

Let's not forget again why we are facing this crisis. One is illegal immigration. Ten million people are increasing the demand when there is not enough supply. We are literally 5.5 million units short.

Secondly, let's not forget that when the Biden administration began, interest rates were 2.7 percent. It got as high as 7.8 percent. To understand that number and put it in perspective, in the community that I live in, that means you are paying $1,200 more a month in interest payments, going from under 3 percent to almost 8 percent because of Big Government spending programs that simply failed in the Biden economy.

Finally, as has been highlighted by Mr. Mackenzie and others tonight, the regulatory burden on the Federal, State, and local levels were so duplicative that you had costs rising dramatically.

This bill tackles each of those issues. We are tackling illegal immigration. We are tackling the interest rate issue, which is finally coming down. Finally, the regulatory burden will be reduced so that we will liberate folks once again from this high regulation, Big Government debacle.

Mr. Speaker, I thank each of the speakers tonight: Congressman Barr from Kentucky, Congressman Stutzman from Indiana, Congressman Kennedy from Utah, Congressman Downing from Montana, and Congressman Crank from Colorado, along with Congressman Mackenzie from Pennsylvania for lending their comments tonight, as well as our Speaker tonight, who encourages us every step of the way.

Mr. Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity tonight. This is so important that for once we are showing that Washington can work. We rarely see in a substantive bill like this a 390-9 vote. We can come together when good ideas are shared. I am just so proud of the work done by the Financial Services Committee and the staff which is with us tonight.

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