Federal Housing Finance Reform Act of 2007
Floor Speech
FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE REFORM ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - May 17, 2007)
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Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.
Mr. Chairman, we have reached a very interesting point in this debate and in this discussion. It has been a long one and it has been a rather interesting one. This amendment that my friend, Mr. Neugebauer, is attempting was attempted in committee and it was defeated.
I find it very interesting because we have seen all kinds of attempts here this evening by the opposite side of the aisle to deny this Housing Fund. We have seen attempts to try to diminish or cut the Housing Fund, to redefine the Housing Fund, to use it for economic development. We have seen everything. And we are at the point now that I guess if you can't stop it, somehow cap it. Cap it no matter how much money under this formula it will bring in. We are going to take an arbitrary amount at $520 million or so and just cap it, even if the actual funds under the formula exceed the estimated $600 million a year. I don't think so.
I would ask my colleagues to vote against this amendment again because it does not make good sense. This particular fund that has been developed by our chairman is one of the most creative items that have happened here in this House in a long time.
We don't have a lot of money to do some of the things we need to be doing for the domestic agenda. As a matter of fact, yes, we support PAYGO because our deficit has gotten out of hand. Our friends on the opposite side of the aisle, in cooperation with this administration, have been spending like drunken sailors. So now we have a way that we can help the least of these in our society attain quality, decent housing, low and moderate income people, and not tap the general fund at all.
And so we have this very, very creative way to do this led by our chairman. And a lot of people are going to benefit from it. And again, we have had attempts to deny it, and now we have an attempt to cap it.
I am saying we should not support this amendment. We should debate it in the way that we have been debating basically this Housing Trust Fund all evening. You have tried everything that you can possibly think of. You have tried to redefine it. You have tried to talk about it in different ways that certainly it was not meant to be described. And you are not winning at this. As a matter of fact, I am hoping that since you are now at the point where you see that there is a lot of support for this Housing Trust Fund, and that you have tried everything that you can possibly try and it hasn't worked, that you will just fold your tent, roll over, come on in, and in the final analysis, vote for this bill which will include this Housing Trust Fund.
I am so tired. I don't have another word that I can share about it. And I hope you feel the same way, too, so we can wrap it up and go home.
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