John Sarbanes: “first, I commend both Senator Shelby, the chairman of the subcommittee, and my colleague from Maryland, Senator…”

“first, I commend both Senator Shelby, the chairman of the subcommittee, and my colleague from Maryland, Senator Mikulski, the ranking member, for their hard work in bringing this conference report to the Senate this afternoon. I do want to express my regret that this report does not contain an important provision, to provide emergency housing vouchers to victims of the recent hurricanes. On September 14 of this year, the Senate unanimously approved an amendment to this bill to provide $3.5 billion in emergency spending to be used to ensure that any person displaced as a result of the hurricanes could receive a housing voucher. These emergency housing vouchers would have enabled displaced families to find and afford safe, decent, and stable housing. While FEMA and HUD are providing some housing assistance to evacuees, it is clear from news reports, as well as from people in the affected areas, that the promises of housing assistance from the Federal Government are falling far short of what is necessary. Just in the past week, there have been articles about the lack of stable housing for evacuees. The titles alone indicate the stress evacuees are under. For example: Hurricane Evacuees Face Eviction Threats At Both Their Old Homes and New; Displaced in Crisis of Affordable Housing; FEMA Housing Slow In Arriving. The administration's housing policy for the victims of the recent hurricanes is unclear and inadequate.…”