Charlie Crist: “I would like to thank Ranking Member Waters for her steadfast leadership. While I have great respect for the gentleman…”

“I would like to thank Ranking Member Waters for her steadfast leadership. While I have great respect for the gentleman from Minnesota, I rise in strong opposition to this bill before us today. I feel so lucky and fortunate to represent Florida's 13th Congressional District which includes my hometown of St. Petersburg, ``The Sunshine City.'' It is a beautiful place to grow up, to visit, to live, to work, and to retire. It is also a place that still bears some scars of segregation. The Fair Housing Act was signed 50 years ago this spring. Why then are so many neighborhoods still segregated? Why are so many of our constituents still victimized by redlining and unequal access to credit? Fair housing data is a critical tool to right the wrongs of the past, to see how well banks are serving all of our communities. It helps root out the occasional bad apple and the occasional bad institution. This data is worth the effort. In a perfect world, we wouldn't need laws to protect the vulnerable, or data to enforce those laws. But having fought and won discrimination suits on behalf of the people as Florida's attorney general, I will tell you, this is not a perfect world. While I share my colleagues' desire to make regulatory compliance less burdensome, let's not make it easier on banks by making it harder for fair housing.”