Bruce F. Vento: “Mr. Chairman, I am reserving my point of order. I would point out that this obviously goes beyond the scope of…”

“Mr. Chairman, I am reserving my point of order. I would point out that this obviously goes beyond the scope of appropriating and into policy areas, much of which the committee, the principal committee on which I serve and many others in this body, has not dealt with. Mr. Chairman, under that reservation I would just point out that this change, a good change, and I might say that Mr. Weller has been an ally in support of the FHA program, and I and other Members have noted that and appreciate it, and this does follow, as he had mentioned, a policy administration action by President Clinton 3 weeks ago to in fact reduce the up-front costs in terms of FHA. So normally important that program to affordable housing in this country, and although this is out of scope, I understand that there has been agreement. I do not want to stand in the way of the agreement; I want to be part of the home ownership, increasing national home ownership opportunities. Last week Secretary Cisneros visited my district and outlined just such a program and other programs that have achieved that. In fact, the Clinton administration has had great success since initiating this, with 1.4 million families since 1995 achieving or obtaining home ownership because of the positive interest rates and other factors in the economy.”