James A. Leach: “Mr. Chairman, let me stress at this point that I think, while awkward, this is particularly appropriate to add this bill…”

“Mr. Chairman, let me stress at this point that I think, while awkward, this is particularly appropriate to add this bill to this bill. Let me thank the distinguished gentleman from New York, who has led the housing movement in the House so ably. But in making this suggestion, let me make some clarification. The distinguished ranking member of the committee, the gentleman from New York, made some critical comments on process during prior debate on the rule, and, to some degree, as chairman of the committee, let me suggest that the gentleman is absolutely correct. The regular order should have been a Committee on Banking and Financial Services conference. For various reasons, this proved difficult to institute. On the other hand, the present situation is not quite the procedural umbrage that is hinted at, in that the bill before us, unlike most authorizing parts of appropriations bills, has passed the House, in fact by a large margin, and a conference can be expected of authorizers in the context of an appropriations conference. What we are thus simply doing is attaching legislation that has previously been agreed to by the House to facilitate movement on that critical subject. In this regard, public housing reform is clearly an important national interest and national objective.”