Kendrick Meek: “I first applaud the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity for having put this program together. I have…”

“I first applaud the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity for having put this program together. I have cautioned them. I have some concerns. It is a good bill, and everybody is loving it to death. But there are some things in the bill that I think my colleagues need to pay attention to, and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters) just finished talking about them. My colleagues just cannot overlook them. First of all, when one begins to fool around with income eligibility in programs like CDBG and HOME, one opens oneself up for broad parameters that one may not be able to fill. Remember, these programs are block grant programs. They are supposed to be given to the local areas. The decisions are not supposed to be made here in the Congress. This block grant program goes into one's local areas, and they decide what should be done with this block grant money. If we decide here in Washington what Westchester should do with its CDBG monies, we are wrong. That money should be left up to Westchester County what they do with it. So I caution my colleagues, even though I am going to work with the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters) and the committee and everyone else when the gentlewoman is withdrawing this, please understand that my colleagues are treading on very, very weak ground. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlewoman from California for bringing it to our attention. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of the Waters amendment.”