Barbara Mikulski

You know, that is a really big job, and first of all I think it is very laudatory.

This is prevention for future financial problems, and it is like being immunized against being taken advantage of.

What appears is that a lot of the predatory lending, the gouging of the poor, has occurred at the so-called subprimes.

I just want to validate and echo your questions related to management and the utility of the program.

I want to hear about people, not programs, about advocacy, not accounting.

I asked the HUD IG to investigate a mortgage service agency called Fairbanks.

We need more programs like the Baltimore HELP program, not fewer.

I have been involved in the issue of predatory lending and flipping for a long time now.

I am very concerned about the fact that the budget request for CDFI is $51 million and it is 30 percent below what we funded it at.

The CDFI Fund has a very important mission. It invests in organizations that are dedicated to improving low-income neighborhoods, and the lives of low-income people.

I am really frustrated, and what I feel is that Senator Bond and I have been the Board.

We want to know what you think, though.

What do you think about it?

We all agreed Teach for America was a teacher's pet, but at the same time our criteria was that these were national in scope but local delivery.

That is exactly right, and if you recall last year, just in our subcommittee, we received $40 million in requests, and they were all bona fide requests.

I would hope we would stick to this and not think about breaking new ground.

I am not talking about philosophy. I am talking about real criteria here.

I am not a real enthusiast of America's Promise, only because I do not know what it has done.

That is a process answer. I want a due date. I am done with process.

I need urgency, urgency, urgency here.

Well, when are you going to get it down?

I need passion. I need from you all such an outrage. Do you have the outrage?

That is exactly right.

That is where the accountability needs to be.

But you do not have good data. The model is a bust.