Barney Frank: “this is an unusual amendment. The actual author offered it, and the Member rising in opposition actually opposes it for…”

“this is an unusual amendment. The actual author offered it, and the Member rising in opposition actually opposes it for the first time today. And I appreciate the cooperation we've had. I want to say that I appreciate, not just that, but the gentleman from Texas, who has been a very constructive member of the committee. We have some differences. That's why we have different parties. But we have a great deal in agreement. And the gentleman's expertise in the homebuilding field has been very helpful as our committee has gone forward. And here is, perhaps, a philosophical difference between us. The main difference here is that the gentleman's amendment, recognizing, as he does from his own experience, the value of additional housing construction, would do away with our two funding sources. Now, we chose to go in addition to the HOME program, which is the one program where there is a parallel, for a couple of reasons. First of all, the HOME program is, of course, subject to annual appropriations, and that's appropriate for most government work. But we did want to have in the government a program for housing construction that had a little bit more assurance for people than an annual appropriation. Appropriations get caught up in omnibus issues, CR issues. The trust fund will be outside of the kind of deadlock that we have had in the past and may, we hope not, but may have in the future.”