Political Quotes

“Thank you, Mr. Fincher, for yielding on this important measure, and thank you for your leadership. Mr. Speaker, it pains me to stand in opposition to my friend, the ranking member of the committee, and in support of H.R. 650, but I believe that H.R. 650 is a commonsense bill that actually preserves financing options for manufactured homes while preserving and maintaining consumer protections. I want to add too that my friend from Missouri noted the health of the industry, and I would like to provide a countercomment on that. In the last decade alone--this very tough economic decade that we have had--there has been an 80 percent decline in the production of manufactured housing in the country. Some 160 plants have closed, and there has been a loss of some 200,000 jobs. Therefore, this industry is important to our Nation. As a percentage of total housing units, in my home State of Arkansas, we have 170,000 units, which is some 13 percent of housing units in our State--one of the largest percentages in the country. For many years, I was a community banker with offices in the Mississippi Delta region of Arkansas. For many of our families, especially in rural areas, manufactured housing is not only the best option for housing, but it is the best option for clean, safe, modern, and affordable housing. Often, due to low volumes in these kinds of towns, it is the only option, as many of my colleagues have noted.…”