Jerry Lewis: “The gentleman is correct, Mr. Chairman. I think the gentleman understands that suddenly we have found that the…”

“The gentleman is correct, Mr. Chairman. I think the gentleman understands that suddenly we have found that the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs does have a little problem from time to time with their accounting procedures. We suddenly found that there was a sizable amount of money in reserve which had not been discovered before. It was very apparent to this Member that if that BA was just left out there it might very well have been scooped up by other interests around the House. It was important that we reserve that money in a way that would allow us to maintain control. So two things occurred: First, as we recognized that some of this budget authority could very effectively be used to deal with these emergency problems across the country, that at the same time allowed us to maintain some control over that authority over time. We wanted to make certain it was not used for other purposes because we do need the long-term commitment to those tenants who are receiving these services in these housing programs.”