Providing for the Concurrence By the House in the Senate Amendment to H.R. with Amendment
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. FLOOD. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Hill and Ranking Member Waters for supporting this bill.
When I got the privilege of leading this subcommittee given to me by our chairman, the first order of business, after I found out where my office was, was to go meet Emanuel Cleaver for dinner. We shared a prime rib, and I knew that night that we had something special.
Housing is personal. Housing is not a building or a garage. It is where you bring home your first baby, and the first bath is under the sink faucet. It is where you tuck your little 7-year-old into bed, and you say: I am doing my part as a parent to protect her from being homeless or living a better life.
When I met Emanuel Cleaver, I could see in his eyes that this was personal to him. I thought, I am a Republican. He is a Democrat. God has placed us in these spots to try and fix something for the American people, to make it easier to get that first house, to buy a manufactured home that doesn't have a chassis and save $25,000, and to do it for all the right reasons.
Last Sunday, as I was coming back to Omaha, we were flying. Because of storms, I was flying over Kansas City and I looked at the lights of Kansas City, and I thought to myself: I want this as much for him as I want it for Lincoln or Waverly or Papillion.
Mr. Speaker, because of our chairman, our ranking member, our Speaker, our leader, and the leadership in both parties, we have a product that the American people can look at tonight on this floor and say: Congress did its job. They worked together. They compromised.
Did we get everything we wanted? No. Have you ever met the ranking member? She drives a hard bargain. Yet, did we move the ball forward for the American people? The answer is yes.
People send us to this town because they want solutions. They don't want what they get too often at 9 o'clock eastern. They want to wake up and know that their kids have a chance to get into a home, to park their car in a garage, go to work at the factory the next day, and build a better life for the next generation.
What do we have in this bill? We have a bicameral, bipartisan solution.
The institutional investor ban language by the Senate created massive unintended consequences for the market. We know that. However, the Senate impressed us with sending a truly bipartisan bill over here.
What the American people need to know is this is what the Founders envisioned, House versus Senate, Republicans and Democrats united in the House, Republicans and Democrats united in the Senate behind an issue, not a personality. I credit the leadership for working the way they did that allowed Mr. Cleaver and I to set a table and listen to the Habitat for Humanity folks from Huntsville, Alabama, to welcome in the mayor of San Diego, to talk to the mayor of Lincoln, who is high up on the United States Conference of Mayors, and find out what her priorities are.
People are going to get into homes, and they are going to get into homes easier because of this. I, for one, want the people I signed up to represent to know this is exactly why I want to be in Congress.
I would like to take a moment to highlight a few provisions that I feel will make a difference. Sections 205 and 206 of the bill work to rightsize environmental reviews on both HUD and USDA housing projects. Mr. Nunn of Iowa is a big fan of that.
This legislation ensures these environmental reviews are properly tailored to the real impact of the project going forward, not just a box that needs to be checked. I worked with Mr. Cleaver on this section of the bill for a long time as it relates to the reform of the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, the largest block grant program at HUD dedicated to building affordable housing.
What does it do? It slashes the environmental review requirements and eases labor cost burdens like the ones created by Section 3.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. FLOOD. Mr. Speaker, in addition, it provides greater flexibility for cities and towns across the country to utilize HOME dollars to promote homeownership. Sometimes it is as easy as extending the wastewater and the water system another 15 blocks. Think how far that goes in California or a small town in Nebraska where they only have two blocks, and another block means you get 10 more houses there. That is 10 more families. That is 50 more kids for a school that is on life support. Now they have housing.
I am very proud of the committee I serve on. I am proud of the way we work in a bipartisan manner. I want my career in Congress to be experiences like this, and I thank Mr. Cleaver for everything that he has accomplished in Congress and look forward to a continued great relationship.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source