Barbara Mikulski: “I rise in opposition to the Nickles amendment. I wish to associate myself with the remarks by the chairman of the…”

“I rise in opposition to the Nickles amendment. I wish to associate myself with the remarks by the chairman of the subcommittee, the Senator from Missouri, Mr. Bond, as well as the senior Senator from Maryland, Mr. Sarbanes, who also is the ranking member on the Housing, Banking, and Urban Affairs Committee. Senator Sarbanes outlined, I think in rather solid, logical terms, exactly why the Nickles amendment really is, though well-intentioned, flawed in its public policy ramifications, as did Senator Bond. I must say that initially, when Secretary Cuomo came and presented this idea, I really raised my eyebrows. I thought, my gosh, FHA--he wanted to raise the limit to $227,000. That is a quarter of a million dollars. That is a lot of money. Now, from the time I either chaired the subcommittee or now, as ranking, it has been my passion and my commitment to public policy to expand opportunities for first-time home ownership, and two significant tools were in the VA-HUD Subcommittee--the VA mortgage itself, which has been a significant empowerment tool for minorities and for others who might have been really segregated out of the mortgage market, and also FHA has been very, very important in terms of first-time home buyers.”