John Kerry: “today I would like to stress my unambiguous support for President Clinton's nomination of Andrew Cuomo to serve as the…”

“today I would like to stress my unambiguous support for President Clinton's nomination of Andrew Cuomo to serve as the next Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. In my opinion, Mr. Cuomo has the potential to be one of the strongest HUD Secretaries in the agency's 30 years of existence. Not only does Andrew Cuomo bring strong and relevant skills to this job, but Mr. Cuomo will inherit an agency that is moving in the right direction. HUD is in much better shape than the agency was in when Henry Cisneros arrived. HUD had suffered greatly during the 1980's from mismanagement and scandal. Secretary Cisneros applied his boundless energy and unique vision to a very difficult task. Those who oppose HUD's important mission tried to use the management difficulties at HUD as an excuse for eliminating the agency. The success of Secretary Cisneros' stewardship has deflated calls for HUD's elimination and has instead changed the national conversation about HUD and housing policy. In this new conversation on housing programs, we can talk about the transformation of public housing.”