Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the gentleman for the time.

Let's talk about what we are really actually talking about. We are trying to fight racial segregation. That is what this is all about. Our Nation, the Nation I love, held slaves for 246 years and did Jim Crow
segregation for another 100 years, and that created racial segregation patterns which this Member is trying to stop us from correcting. This is deeply offensive.

I just want to say that when I think about the progress that our Nation has made so that when we say ``all men are created equal'' and when we say ``liberty and justice for all,'' that it will be true. This
amendment is saying no, we are not going to allow it to be true; we are going to keep residential segregation based on race; we are going to make communities balkanize.

When I hear somebody say something like the Federal Government should stay out of local affairs, that sounds like some states' rights talk from 1955. That sounds like something really offensive to me.

Look, we need HUD to help implement affirmatively furthering fair housing rules. We need that. We need HUD to expand its efforts to fight discrimination and promote equal opportunity in every community.

Too often in this country, too many people's economic opportunities, their life chances, are limited by where they live. And yes, the Federal Government should promote equality and should promote fair
housing. Affirmatively furthering a fair housing rule helps to do that. Why we would want to strip it out makes absolutely no sense to me.

I urge Members to understand what is going on right here and to very fervently vote ``no'' on the Gosar amendment.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source