Basically, What You Have Done on the Bill is it Says: Effective on the Date of the Act There are Rescinded
Floor Speech
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Mr. GARAMENDI. Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Madam Chair, 10 weeks ago on this floor there was great celebration by our colleagues in the Republican Party as they took control of this House, and there were many sermons given to all of us by the Members in the majority party about the need to listen to Americans. I suggest we do that at this moment as we consider this bill.
Madam Chair, 10,780,236 American families are crying out for help. We should be listening to them.
I know the gentlewoman from Illinois has a big heart, and she knows that 430,000 of the homeowners in Illinois are crying out for relief. And I'm certain, Madam Chairman, that the author of this bill, the gentleman from Alabama, is well aware that in his State 35,000 homeowners are crying out for relief. And I'm certain that all of the Members of the Republican Party are listening to the 10,780,236 families in America that are crying out for relief. I can assure you the Democrats are listening.
My amendment, Madam Chair, is one that goes to one of the three reasons why they are crying out for relief.
There was no regulation imposed during the years 2001 to 2009. That was one problem. We attempted to address that with the Dodd-Frank law that's now in place.
The second reason was irresponsibility; and certainly some of those homeowners who are crying out for relief were irresponsible, and certainly some of those who lost their homes already that are crying out for relief were irresponsible. But the big irresponsibility were the bankers in this Nation. They took advantage of millions upon millions of homeowners and engaged in irresponsible activity.
The third item is where my amendment goes, and that is to Wall Street greed. We know, from the commission that was assigned the responsibility of looking at why the great crash occurred, we know from that report that greed was the underlying motivation for Wall Street. My amendment goes to that greed.
In the future, not in the past--and some of my colleagues have spoken to the need for criminal action, which is also part of that report done by the commission--this goes to the future. This amendment goes to the future and says for those in Wall Street, the high and the mighty that get the huge bonuses, most of whom were just in the newspaper this week, that their bonuses should be in the stock of the company in which they are operating and that those bonuses be held in an escrow account for a period of time so that either the good or the bad effect of their action would be known and so that they could not take immediate benefit from their irresponsible actions.
This amendment would put a damper on Wall Street greed. This amendment is necessary to put a damper on Wall Street greed, and it goes directly to one of the reasons why this bill is before us. This bill is before us, I think in an inappropriate way, to deal with the housing crisis. The housing crisis was caused in part by Wall Street greed. We ought to be addressing that. That's what this amendment does, by withholding from immediate benefit those members of Wall Street who have created the crisis in the past and who may very well be in the process of creating tomorrow's crisis.
I ask for the support of this amendment.
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Mr. GARAMENDI. I think that it's necessary when we take up a bill that would eliminate a law that is intended to help 10,780,326 homeowners that we look to the underlying reason why the problem exists. This amendment does that.
We ought not be using artificial rules that prevent us from the underlying problem, allowing those rules to stop us from taking up the real problem.
I oppose the proposal to rule this out of order.
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Mr. GARAMENDI. Madam Chair, I move to strike the last word.
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Mr. GARAMENDI. Yes, we ought to look to the children. Last Sunday on ``60 Minutes'' was a report about our children in America today. Twenty-five percent of our children in America today are hungry, and many of them are homeless because their parents have lost their homes.
Forty-two families. Yes, this program hasn't yet kicked into its full potential. Forty-two families are in their homes today, and those children are not out on the street homeless.
Listen to America. Listen to the 25 percent of children in America today that are hungry, and a large percentage of them are homeless. Listen to their cry. Listen to them. Yes, we have an obligation as good citizens of this Nation to see to it that our neighborhoods, even if they are the high-end neighborhoods in Alabama, that those problems are addressed.
Ten months ago, the new majority took this floor and they said, Listen, listen to Americans that want jobs. Not one job bill has passed this House. The only bill that's passed this House that dealt with jobs was H.R. 1, the continuing resolution, that destroyed 700,000 jobs and will put more of those children homeless, will destroy more families. Yes, we ought to be listening to the generations ahead of us. But if we do not listen to today's problems, those problems in the future will only be worse.
And $8 billion, yes, that's a lot of money. But it happens to be 8 percent of what we spend every year in the Afghan war. Get our priorities straight here on this floor. You bet I'm worried about the children of today. But 25 percent of Americans' children are hungry, and a large percentage of them are homeless because their parents have been unable to meet the mortgage commitments.
This program is one of four that is going to be terminated by the Republican majority.
So what is it that you are offering those children? The children of today, what is it that you are offering them? The opportunity to be homeless. That's what you're offering.
Come to this floor and talk to me about tomorrow's generation. Yes, do that. And that's my concern also. But I'm concerned about those that are homeless and hungry today.
So don't eliminate this program. Make it work. Don't eliminate the other three programs that are an effort to try to keep people in their homes so that they don't go homeless.
Madam Chair, I know my colleagues on the Republican side care about the children of America, today's children. Why they would put four bills forward this week and next week that eliminate the opportunity for those parents to stay in their home I do not understand. We need compassion. We need to be aware of the deficit. We need to make choices. If our choice is to force more families to be homeless, that's the wrong choice.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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