Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, the District of Columbia and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 2007
TRANSPORTATION, TREASURY, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, THE JUDICIARY, THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA AND INDEPENDENT AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2007
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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Chairman, this amendment would increase funding for Section 8 housing vouchers by $70 million to enable an additional 10,000 low-income families to afford safe, decent housing.
To offset this increase, the amendment cuts the Working Capital Fund for a poorly managed computer upgrade program. Even with the reduction, the bill would still provide $94 million in working capital funds for IT projects in eight accounts scattered around the bill other than the Working Capital Fund itself.
We have a choice, Mr. Chairman. Do we want to help thousands of families obtain affordable housing, or do we think it is more important to have a somewhat faster computer upgrade in HUD? If we support American families, we should support this amendment.
We all understand the budget is extremely tight and that many programs are facing cuts. Our amendment, therefore, does not seek to restore the amount to the amount that the President recommended, which is $144 million more than the committee recommends, it seeks merely to restore $70 million, or about half of what the difference is to what the President recommended.
This is less than the bare minimum of what is needed. We have hundreds of thousands of families on waiting lists, waiting 8, 9, 10 years for decent housing for Section 8 vouchers.
This amendment will enable us to provide vouchers to about 10,000 of those families. That is our choice. The Section 8 housing voucher program provides safe, affordable housing to approximately 2 million American families in urban and rural communities in our country.
Those vouchers are often the only resource for low-income families confronted by our Nation's affordable housing crisis.
Mr. Chairman, many Republicans support this amendment. We passed a similar amendment last year with Republican support. 141 Members have signed a letter in support of fully funding the President's request, which would be twice the size of this amendment. 225 Members, including 30 Republicans, voted for an essentially similar amendment last year.
I urge everyone on both sides of the aisle to vote for this amendment.
Finally, let me say that we may be told that the offset would leave no funds in the computer account. The fact is the committee has been very ingenious in squirreling away money in different accounts.
Mr. Chairman, I have here a list of all of the places in the bill where money is squirreled away for these computers. There is a total of $194 million. With this amendment it would still leave $94 million for this purpose.
Mr. Chairman, I thank the chairman. I urge everyone to vote for this amendment.
Mr. Chairman, I would offer this chart for the RECORD. I am pleased to announce also that the amendment has gained the support of the AARP and the National League of Cities. Once again, the choice is, will we provide 10,000 families with safe, decent housing, at the price of slightly slowing down a computerization program for the bureaucrats at HUD?
That is the choice. I hope everyone will vote yes on the Nadler-Velazquez Amendment.
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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Chairman, the fact is we have waiting lists in many of our cities of 8, 9, and 10 years for Section 8 vouchers.We could do much, much more than this amendment would do and shorten these waiting lists to 5 and 6 years.
Mr. Chairman, it is wrong for low-income Americans to have to wait 8, 9 and 10 years for decent, safe housing. This amendment will go a little ways toward supplying that need.
The chairman says that the committee's proposal funds all of the Section 8 vouchers. It funds enough Section 8 vouchers to continue a waiting list of 8, 9, and 10 years.
Now, it is true the offset takes some money away from a computerization account at HUD, but it leaves $94 million for that purpose. The computerization at HUD can go a little more slowly, and 10,000 additional families will have decent housing.
That is the choice. HUD can do, and do very well, with $94 million for this computerization program squirreled away in different sections of the bill as I have here outlined.
But 10,000 families might not have to wait 9, 10 years for decent housing. Mr. Chairman, that is the choice in the amendment. That is why I urge everyone to vote for the amendment.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Chairman, this amendment would increase the appropriation for the Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS program, or HOPWA, by $10 million.
Frankly, this is a very modest amount. Earlier this year, more than 100 Members joined me and Representatives Ros-Lehtinen and Crowley in asking the Appropriations Committee for $424 million in HOPWA funding for fiscal year 2007.
I am relieved that the President finally asked for a $14 million increase over last year in HOPWA funding, and I am very grateful to Chairman Knollenberg and Ranking Member Olver for meeting his request and funding the program at this level.
But the sad truth is that this year's HOPWA level barely keeps up with inflation. Three years ago in 2004, HOPWA was funded at $295 million. That the program will see an increase in 2004 to 2007 of $5 million in 3 years is not enough even to meet inflation.
Housing needs have grown faster than inflation. Adequately meeting the housing needs of all those living with HIV and AIDS would take over $2 billion. Nationwide, thousands of people are now on waiting lists for HOPWA-funded housing, and with 91 percent of HOPWA recipients having family incomes of less than $1,000 per month, program recipients simply cannot afford the shortfall.
The costs associated with new AIDS treatments often force people to choose between essential medications to enable them to survive and the necessities such as housing. Without adequate HOPWA funding, AIDS patients will continue to flood our emergency rooms and our Medicaid rolls and will be forced to live on the streets.
This HOPWA funding does not simply get people with HIV and AIDS off of the streets. Recent studies have shown that housing in many cases equates directly to HIV prevention because people with housing are much more likely to know their HIV status and, therefore, less likely to transmit the disease to others. Improvements in housing status also lead to lower rates of high-risk behavior, such as intravenous drug use, which can lead to the spread of the disease.
HOPWA is an extremely fiscally sound program. It is locally controlled and provides maximum flexibility to States and communities to design approaches that best respond to local housing needs. In fiscal year 2006 alone, HOPWA funds will support the delivery of services to roughly 71,500 households in all 50 States.
I realize that, given the record deficits that we have, funding HOPWA at the $2 billion level it should have is not realistic. The financial constraints that we face put us in an unfortunate bind. There is much room for improvement.
I, again, thank the chairman and ranking member for the increase that they proposed, but given the scarce resources of this bill, a $10 million increase beyond that, which means we will have an increase by $5 million in 3 years, is I think more than warranted, and that is what this amendment is.
I am grateful for HOPWA's increase this year, but I urge a further increase of $10 million, so it is a net increase of $5 million in 3 years.
Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
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