Barney Frank

And the localities will have the ability to do it by voucher or by construction, including, as the gentleman well understands from his work, maybe places that have supportive housing as part of it. That would be an eligible use.

People keep talking about $3 billion for Katrina. There was no housing construction fund in the hurricane bill. If that is meant to be construction, it is simply not the case. We put vouchers into the hurricane bill, but there was not $3…

I do find a great inconsistency, not on the part of the gentleman from Louisiana, who has been completely consistent on this issue for years, but first, we were being told that we should not interfere with the profitability of Fannie Mae…

That, I must say, totally disappoints me. For the third time the gentleman has tried to put words in my mouth. The words ``trust in me,'' the gentleman read that, and the gentleman's distortion, systematic distortion, has gone beyond what…

I thank the gentleman. Will he explain to me what in the world that has to do with an amendment that does not provide a penny for Social Security?

I will yield if the gentleman will give me an answer to the question. Reading his amendment doesn't get to the question. How does your amendment transfer money into Social Security?

I understand that. That is a definition of the deficit. Good for the gentleman. But it does not put any money into the deficit. The gentleman said that if we passed his amendment, we would be choosing to put the money, instead of into…

No. I am yielding for the purpose of a question. Answer the question. The gentleman said, the choice is to either put it into affordable housing or put it into the deficit. It doesn't go into the deficit now. It is Fannie Mae and Freddie…

I really appreciate his offering this amendment. As I said, I understand there will be some philosophical differences over the existence of the fund, but it certainly is incumbent upon us to make sure that that's all we're debating, not…

I am impressed with the precision and exactitude of my friend from Texas. I am actually used to Texans talking slower. I appreciate my friend getting to the point so quickly, and I apologize for my not being there. It is a very good…

Well, in the first place, the universe is not exhausted by the borrowers and the shareholders. There are banks involved. There are many other people in the transaction. And yes, I think there will be various distributions, of course, and…

Let me just say this; this has now become a late night TV commercial, it might be a late night debate. It will slice, it will dice, it will cut. We are going to see the magic nine cut knife as a way to kill the Affordable Housing Program…

I am disappointed in the gentleman's naive economics. No, you cannot by statute affect this economic question. My point is that is a measure of where the pricing power is, and it is impossible to sort out where it comes from when you are…

I wouldn't accept such an amendment because it would be impossible to enforce the economics of what's involved, to the extent that an entity has pricing power, monopoly pricing power or duopoly that can pass along the costs. I would just…

I said it would come from the shareholders. I didn't say it wouldn't come from Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

I have read it over. It does correctly reinforce the point this is not creating any new governmental involvement. We don't want anyone to misinterpret this. This is not to increase regulation, not to increase any kind of entitlement or…

I would take it to say that we often focus on what we disagree on. Let's be clear. We agree on the strongest regulator that you could possibly have and still be workable. The gentleman from Louisiana is here, he was one of those who…

Mr. Chairman, the bill has two major components. First, it significantly increases the strength of the regulator of the two major Federal housing government-sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It also deals with the Federal…

On October 26, 2005, the House passed the GSE bill that came out of the committee chaired by Mr. Oxley that had a housing trust fund virtually identical to this one. This one is financed a little differently at the request of the Treasury…

I would urge the two of them to work that out. I would be glad to either give them the acknowledgment, as the gentleman from Georgia said, that they support it; or retract that compliment to Mr. Cox, as the gentleman from Illinois prefers…

I apologize, then. I inferred that the Members on the other side were being supportive of what our former colleague, Mr. Cox, did. If, in fact, I have incorrectly assumed that my colleagues were supportive of what the Republican SEC has…

I do not agree. Yes, I would ask for unanimous consent to make a slight technical change in an amendment to fix wording. But to go into a much broader version of the subject, under these circumstances, without a hearing, without full…

Well, it is late and I am sometimes cranky. I can't say that I would be happy to work with the gentleman, but I would be willing to. ... it was on the fly. So it is circular logic that is very interesting.

I have just been advised by staff, who is very knowledgeable on this, that part of the problem is, and I understand the gentleman has, as I think is appropriate, substantively the model of what was done with mutual funds, but I have been…

I agree on the principle that a fiduciary's vote should have to be made public, but I wouldn't want to limit it only to pension funds. I also don't think it should be limited only to this subject matter, although I agree, given…