NSP Termination Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Speaker, it's amazing to me that we're here at this time when we've seen 4 million foreclosures across America, perhaps 7 million. We've seen neighborhoods devastated. And instead of the majority conference offering solutions to this foreclosure crisis, instead of them coming forth and saying, You know what, here's what we think we need to do for the American people to stay in their homes, all they want to do is destroy what Democrats have done. It's amazing. It's really something that I hope the American people pay very close attention to.
The gentleman on the other end says that, Look, somebody's going to buy the house that you lost in foreclosure. If we can be successful with programs like the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, we will create an environment where people will not lose their homes because the value of their homes will not plummet. They will not end up underwater. And people will have somewhere that they can live and a neighborhood that they can be proud of.
But because the Republican conference is making itself abundantly clear, I think it needs to be clear to the American people whose side we're on. The Democrats are on the side of the American people staying in their homes. The Republican conference is on the side of throwing people out and foreclosing on Americans. And it's a sad, sad day in our Congress. We are in the middle of an enormous debate on the proper role of government. We believe the proper role of government is to have fair rules, to have real enforcement of our financial regulations, to have real consumer protection, and to intervene when people's neighborhoods are being destroyed by foreclosure.
The Republicans say, You're on your own. The market has all the answers. The market answers every question. Well, it doesn't answer every question, especially when the market doesn't have any cops on the beat, and when you let the people engage in all sorts of nefarious practices that caused the economic conditions that we're in today.
The Republican conference was in power when the regulations that led to this destruction were in place--and they did nothing. When the Democrats got in charge, we solved it. And now they're trying to disassemble it.
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Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Chairman, I have a preferential motion at the desk.
The CHAIR. The Clerk will report the motion.
The Clerk read as follows:
Mr. ELLISON moves that the Committee do now rise and report the bill to the House with the recommendation that the enacting clause be stricken.
The CHAIR. The gentleman from Minnesota is recognized for 5 minutes in support of his motion.
Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Chair, I rise to make this motion today because I'm opposed to the underlying bill, the NSP Termination Act.
Mr. Chair, in the course of this debate on the termination of foreclosure mitigation programs, including this bill, we've been enmeshed in a huge debate around what the proper role of government is.
The Republican Caucus clearly thinks that government has no role, that citizens are on their own, and that no matter how much devastation a particular phenomenon like the foreclosure crisis has caused, that citizens just have no help in the government. The government can't be there for them.
And, on the other hand, the Democratic Caucus, we believe that, in the proper circumstances, the government has an important role and does need to be there for the American people, and when we see property values dropping, whole neighborhoods destroyed, that we should do something about it.
This motion to strike the enacting clause, according to Rule XVIII, clause 9, "if carried in the House, shall constitute a rejection of the bill."
And, Mr. Chair, I urge that we do reject this bill. This bill is an affront and an insult at a time when Americans have seen over 4 million foreclosures across this Nation, devastating whole communities, devastating communities and wiping out city and municipal budgets, so that cities, when they have abandoned properties in their neighborhoods, are left with tearing them down and demolishing them on the nickel of the taxpayer in that city when, in fact, this is a community-wide problem.
There's no money in many cities to do the demolition. So what will happen is that an old, burned-out hulk will sit there and sit there as neighbors look on and see the property values in their homes plummet. And what we'll see, Mr. Chair, is people leaving dogs there. Perhaps the house will be an attractive nuisance. Perhaps some crime will be committed there, drug dealing there, dead animals left there, and neighborhoods will fall deeper and deeper in despair.
I grew up in the city of Detroit. I'm honored to represent the Fifth District of Minneapolis today, but I grew up in the city of Detroit, and I saw how the foreclosures in that city ripped that town apart. And the good people of that city had to sit by and watch folks burn houses. They would put them on fire, and years later, no money to demolish them that the city had, and it just helped folks say that, You know what? I'm going to leave this city because I can't stand to live here with that big hulk right next to my home. Who's going to help out?
Well, according to the Republican Caucus, that's not the proper role of government. And this is really what this is all about.
Mr. Chairman, I've heard our friends in the Republican Caucus talk about jobs, yet they haven't introduced one single jobs bill, and we've been here for 11 weeks.
They talk about the deficit and go on and on ad nauseam about putting debt on our children and grandchildren. And yet, when they had the chance to raise revenue so that we could, in fact, pay the bills of this country, they were absolutely and adamantly opposed to it.
But now, when we see Americans have their neighborhoods slipping into oblivion, slipping into a situation where people can't live in their neighborhood and people can't sell their homes so they're just suffering, the Republican Caucus said, There's nothing we can do for you either.
They don't really demonstrate a commitment to jobs. They don't really demonstrate a commitment to even dealing with the deficit, at least not through revenue raising. They have a commitment to set Americans adrift, on their own.
I make this motion to correct the record on this Neighborhood Stabilization Program. This isn't a broken or ineffective program that should be eliminated. It is a vitally important program for local and State governments that need all the resources they can get to address neighborhoods that are overrun by foreclosures.
According to HUD, the Neighborhood Stabilization Program has supported close to 100,000 jobs nationwide. They will be eliminated if we pass this bill. That's right. The Republicans, again, are cutting another 100,000 jobs for working Americans.
So, Mr. Chair, what does the Neighborhood Stabilization Program do?
It helps local and State governments renovate abandoned and foreclosed properties. It helps local governments revitalize communities instead of watching these neighborhoods deteriorate. It gives communities the ability to get back on their feet as quickly as possible.
In my district, the city of Minneapolis has put NSP funding to good use. Thomas Streitz is the director of Housing and Policy Development for the city of Minneapolis, and he explains: "The Neighborhood Stabilization Program has enabled the city of Minneapolis to stabilize neighborhoods throughout the city affected by foreclosure. Funding to date has impacted more than 530 properties, and with the additional funding sought, 56 more properties could be rehabilitated, bringing even more homeowners back into neighborhoods."
I believe the NSP is a good investment.
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The CHAIR. Pursuant to House Resolution 170, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Ellison) and a Member opposed each will control 5 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Minnesota.
Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
The middle class is shrinking and deficits are rising because the Republicans are giving a pass to special interests who cheated homeowners and wrecked our economy. Instead of working to keep middle class families in their homes, the Republican plan is to foreclose on the American middle class. The American people sent us here to protect the American Dream, not to perpetuate a Wall Street nightmare. Democrats are standing with the American people to create good-paying American jobs and to keep them in their homes. Democrats are working to ensure that every American who wants a good job, can find one, and that middle class Americans can afford to buy a home and live the American Dream.
The legislation on the floor today proposes cutting funding for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. Republicans want to foreclose on the middle class, and my amendment forces Members to look at how this legislation will impact their State. So far, for each Member, if you read my amendment, you will see how much funding may be cut from your State. My feeling is that before Republicans vote to cut funding for a successful housing program and a foreclosure mitigation program, they should know how much funding is at risk for their State and what the people back home are going to think about their vote.
This legislation to cut housing funding makes it clear that the majority is not focused on creating jobs. The Neighborhood Stabilization Program helps local communities redevelop abandoned and foreclosed properties, and that funding helps to create jobs. It takes workers to demolish an abandoned building.
Overall, the Neighborhood Stabilization Program has created about 93,000 jobs. This legislation to cut NSP funding is just another bill offered up by the majority that will actually cut jobs. The unemployment rate is currently 8.9 percent. This rate is far too high. It is wasting human capital. People's skills and talents are sitting on the sidelines instead of being put to good use and earning a good paycheck. Unemployed Americans are ready to get back to work, and we must use every tool at our disposal to create new jobs.
Instead of creating jobs, the Republican majority is launching an attack on American workers and foreclosing on the American Dream. The Republican plan to cut funding and cut jobs won't help our economy. It's going to do the opposite. It's going to hold back our economic recovery. The continuing resolution passed last month by the majority would cut $60 billion from programs and agencies that help the middle class and working families.
Economist Mark Zandi has estimated these cuts would result in the loss of 700,000 jobs. We can't afford to add to the already unacceptably high level of unemployment in this country. Republicans in Congress are pushing a reckless and irresponsible plan that protects tax breaks for millionaires and giveaways for corporate special interests at the expense of the middle class.
I urge my colleagues to support my amendment and to vote against the underlying bill.
I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. ELLISON. I yield myself the balance of my time.
Two particular points, Mr. Chair. One is that, first of all, there's never been a program from any State, Federal, or local program that did not need review. I can tell you that in the city of Minneapolis, and in many other places, this program has been high quality and has been well, well run.
Now, the question is interesting because if the gentleman wanted to talk about inefficiencies in a program, we could talk about fixing those programs. We're not talking about fixing the NSP program. We're talking about eliminating it. So I think if this was a sincerely made point, that we would be talking about how we can improve the program. We should mend it, not end it.
Secondly, this amendment that I'm offering tries to inform Members as to the losses that their communities will endure by cutting the program. This program elimination will be felt across America in local communities where foreclosures are happening, and in those particular communities Members should know what is going to happen: that expenditures for demolishing and rehabilitating abandoned homes are not going to be there any more. And I think it's important the Members should know. And I think it's important that the people who live in the Members' communities should know.
And so I ask that the amendment be adopted.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. ELLISON. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Chair, the middle class is shrinking and deficits are rising because the Republicans are giving a pass to special interests who cheated some homeowners and wrecked our economy. Instead of working to keep the middle class families in their homes, the Republican plan is to foreclose on the American middle class.
The amendment I have right here in front of you describes findings which talk about the positive benefits of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. This program is a good program, and no matter what may happen here today, the record should reflect the benefits of this program. This program was good, and the amendment offers language which sets forth findings, and the findings state the positive impacts of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, including assisting local governments, supporting jobs, and impacting approximately 100,000 properties.
The highlights of this amendment about the Neighborhood Stabilization Program talk about the positive benefits to the communities that the Neighborhood Stabilization Program benefited--it helped local governments, and the fact is, Mr. Chair, local governments really did benefit from this program, and the record should reflect and the bill should report language that talks about those benefits.
I'd like to just say this as well, Mr. Chair. The fact is that it is true that once an abandoned property is sitting there on the tax rolls after a certain amount of time somebody may at some point buy it, as the gentleman on the other side says. But what happens in the meantime? In the meantime, the grass grows, dead cats and dogs get left there. In the meantime, the windows are broken. In the meantime, people's property values plummet. In the meantime, we have an attractive nuisance where young people might be pulled in and taken advantage of. Horrible stories have happened, Mr. Chair.
So the gentleman has been right in his argument that sometime in the future maybe somebody will buy this rundown, abandoned, stripped-out property with no copper left in it, with neighbors who have just been decimated in the value of their homes, but that would be a far cry from what we could do. And if we're going to terminate this program, which has helped so many local governments, we should at least put language and findings in the record which reflect the positive aspects of this program, including the 93,000 jobs that we're getting rid of and the 100,000 properties that we've already helped, and the more that we could help.
I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. ELLISON. May I inquire as to the remaining time?
The CHAIR. The gentleman from Minnesota has 2 1/2 minutes remaining.
Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Chairman, let me only add this: that this language, which should be put in the bill and this amendment calls for, sets forth in the record the positive impacts of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, which should be memorialized in the bill, things like job creation, saving the neighborhood, saving local governments exorbitant costs. The Republican caucus has not created a single job, and now they're even eliminating jobs.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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