Political Quotes

“I rise to encourage the members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Development to address the issue of occupancy standards when the public housing reform bill goes to conference committee. Earlier this year, Senator Faircloth and I introduced the State Housing Protection Act which transfers from HUD to the States, the authority to set occupancy standards. Yet, the committee did not address the matter when it considered its public housing reform bill. Mr. President, Senator Faircloth and I have worked on this issue for 2 years. In the 104th Congress, Senator Faircloth and I blocked HUD from imposing national occupancy standards until it completed an official rule. Soon thereafter, we introduced a bill with Representative McCollum which prohibited HUD from setting a national occupancy standard. The House included that bill in its 1996 public housing reform bill, but it died in conference committee late last year. In May of this year, the House passed its public housing reform bill which included a section that prohibits the Secretary of HUD from establishing a national occupancy standard. Senator Faircloth and I have tried to change the current policy on occupancy standards because we believe that HUD generally has pursued an occupancy standard policy that encourages overcrowding, thereby depreciating housing stock that is scarce to begin with. We believe that HUD is poorly serving lower-income families and defeating its own purpose.”