Section 8 Voucher Reform Act Of 2007

Floor Speech

SECTION 8 VOUCHER REFORM ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - July 12, 2007)

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Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Madam Chairman, I thank my friend for his great work on this issue.

I think it is important to address the concept presented by our friends on the other side of the aisle that the folks who are the recipients of these vouchers are victims. Well, they might be victims, but they are victims of an economy which says to far too many people out in this world that if you play by the rules, if you do everything we ask of you, if you go out and get a job, a full-time regular job, that you are still going to be living in poverty, that you are still going to need a little help to be able to survive in this world.

In a high-cost-of-living State and a high-cost-of-housing State like Connecticut, 5,000 vouchers does not do it for the working poor there. We have people in our neck of the woods that are paying 60, 70, 80 percent of their income, hard-earned income on rent.

We are a part of the world that desperately needs more section 8 housing vouchers to help the working poor, the people who are doing everything this society asks them to do. But because we live in an economy where wages are stagnant and the cost of living continues to rise, a program like this is a very valuable and needed helping hand.

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