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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Mr. TAYLOR. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

Mr. Chairman, I followed this debate for several hours now, both here on the House floor and in my office, and what I sense is some people having a lot of fun at the expense of the least among us.

In my State tonight, 75,000 people will go to sleep in a FEMA trailer that the United States Department of Health has ruled is a health hazard because they have carcinogens in them. They have formaldehyde in them. But it beats the heck out of sleeping in a Chevy Astro Van. It beats the heck out of sleeping on their mother-in-law's couch, if their mother-in-law has a couch.

In the State of Louisiana, there are 49,000 families who will go to sleep in a FEMA trailer. Down around Bayou La Batre, Alabama, another thousand; in Texas, another thousand. This isn't a joke. This is trying to help the least among us. That is why you see Mr. Baker trying to help this bill, and that is why you see me trying to help this bill. It is not a joke.

We talk about we ought to be doing better things with this money. What is better than helping people who 2 years ago who were middle class, who had homeowners insurance, who got screwed by the insurance company and woke up to find out they were poor because they lost everything in one night and their insurance company didn't pay.

No, I won't yield. You've had hours.

And they can't get any housing built because the workers can't move is because there is no place for the workers to live to build the houses. And yes, it is still going on, for those of you who wonder.

I am a U.S. Congressman. I am living in my third place since the storm. You all know what we make. We make lots of money. It's not that I can't afford one, there is none to get.

I am a Congressman. If that is happening to me at my salary, what do you think is happening to a schoolteacher or a retired chief petty officer or a policeman or a fireman. I thought that was what we were about, was helping people.

All of a sudden you are concerned about borrowing and where this money should go. It didn't bother you when you borrowed money from the communist Chinese. It didn't bother you for the past 12 years when you took money out of the Social Security trust fund. It bothers you now when we want to help the average Joes? Well, that bothers me.

The chairman is exactly right. The same folks who say we should have no accountability of where the billions of dollars go in Iraq, all of a sudden, demand that this money that might help somebody who used to be an average Joe who now finds himself in a horrible situation, my God, you don't want to do that.

Cut the games out. This is serious. This is about housing, a basic need. A basic need for our fellow Americans, not Iraqis. Our fellow Americans.

I have sat here and watched this game go on for hours, and I have had enough. I think the people of America, if they are following this debate, they've had enough.

It is time to move this bill. If you don't think it is a good idea to take the profits from this organization and ask that they be directed towards the housing needs of our fellow Americans, vote against the bill. But I happen to think that is a pretty good idea because I know guys who used to live in 6,000 square foot houses who are going to spend tonight in a FEMA trailer. Not because they want to, because they got screwed by their insurance company. They are still going to work. They can't find somebody to build a house.

When you lose 60,000 houses overnight, it puts a heck of a strain on the system. And when the workers who want to come there and build those houses have no place to live, it makes it even worse. We are trying to address that. These are real needs for real people.

You've made whatever political points you want to make to your constituency, but now it is time to move on and help our fellow Americans.

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Mr. TAYLOR. Mr. Speaker, I move to strike the last word.

Mr. Speaker, the events of the fall of 2005 were horrible to a large portion of the gulf coast. I understand the gentleman's concern. I would have appreciated if he'd have voted against the Bachus amendment, which would have struck all of this money, but you voted for it.

But one thing I wanted to point out is the somewhat arbitrary nature of his amendment. There's no real good way to judge who lost a house. One of the things we can look at, though, is those who asked for the help which was offered by our President which was delivered by FEMA.

They said if your house is uninhabitable or if it's gone, we'll make a trailer available for every four inhabitants. In Louisiana today, based on FEMA's numbers, there's still 49,000 FEMA trailers being occupied. In my home State, there are 24,500 FEMA trailers still being occupied. In the gentleman's State, there's 1,700 FEMA trailers being occupied.

What I have a problem with is arbitrarily taking a substantial amount of money from a State like Mississippi, that had substantially, according to this, more people lose their homes and just giving it to Texas.

Now, if the gentleman is now for the bill, that's wonderful. If the gentleman would ask the chairman to include the word ``Texas'' so that when this goes to conference hopefully with the other body, in the time between now and then we can find some fair way to adjudicate those claims, I think that would be wonderful.

But what I object to is literally picking a number out of the sky in a State that's got less than 1/10th of the people living in those trailers tonight, as my State, and asking for half the money that my State is getting.

I have been for this proposal. I have sat on this floor for this proposal. The gentleman has objected to this proposal.

So, again, if the gentleman wants to make the request of the chairman that somehow the words Louisiana, Texas, Alabama and Mississippi are included in there, and that between now and conference we find a fair way to distribute these funds, I'm with you. But to just pick a number out of the sky and say just because we're from Texas and we've got a huge delegation, we think we ought to get half as much money as Mississippi, even though 1/10th of the people that are in trailers in Mississippi are in trailers in Texas, I just can't buy that. That's not responsible.

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