Robert Ehrlich: “I rise today to commend the hard work of House Banking Committee Chairman Jim Leach and the Housing and Community…”

“I rise today to commend the hard work of House Banking Committee Chairman Jim Leach and the Housing and Community Opportunity Subcommittee Chairman Rick Lazio on moving legislation (S. 1452) that will bring much-needed reform to the housing industry in the United States. I am particularly pleased that several provisions of H.R. 1776, the Housing and Economic Opportunity Act, have been included in the legislation we consider before us today. There is, however, one provision of H.R. 1776 that is important to removing barriers to homeownership which has been excluded. The provision omitted from S. 1452, which was previously contained in the bipartisan-supported H.R. 1776, requires the Federal government to perform a housing impact analysis before it issues new regulations. This commonsense provision is consistent with my philosophy of reducing and avoiding excessive government regulations. In short, the housing impact analysis determines if a significant negative impact on affordable housing would result from the proposed housing regulation, and provides the private sector an opportunity to submit an alternative to the proposed regulation.”