Barney Frank: “Well, I again would repeat that the gentleman said last year I supported this Housing trust fund. So did almost all the…”

“Well, I again would repeat that the gentleman said last year I supported this Housing trust fund. So did almost all the Republicans, but the basic point here is that he misstated the nature of the hurricane bill. In the hurricane bill, and the gentlewoman from California who was its main author is here and will speak shortly, we did not provide any additional funds for the construction of affordable housing to replace what was lost. That was mostly with vouchers. We did have some project-based vouchers in the amount of a couple of thousand, but if the gentleman will go back to that bill, he will note frequently in the debate we alluded in that debate to this bill. That is, much of the rental housing in New Orleans was destroyed. The rental housing was destroyed in much of the gulf. This was always a two-bill approach, and the gentleman is simply wrong to state that in the hurricane bill we provided funds for additional affordable housing. We stated at the time, we set some rules about vouchers. We talked about public housing, but we were always clear it would be this bill that would provide the funds. So the point that we already did this could not be more incorrect.”