Keith Ellison

we spend more than $270 billion a year on housing. We spend a lot of money on housing, just not too much of it goes to poor folks.

only one in four households who are eligible for housing assistance actually get it.

There is a shortage of about 7 million affordable rental homes for low-income families.

I am personally appalled by how poorly Congress has funded public housing.

Our Government is a democratic government and it is undergirded by a Constitution and the people have every right to believe that the Government is there to protect the general welfare.

People have a right to believe that they will be dealt with justly and fairly by the state.

Including alternative data such as utility, telecom, and rent helps consumers, lenders, and small businesses and the economy.

Well-functioning credit markets are the essential component of economic prosperity.

I am deeply proud of the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

I am committed to preserving and expanding the remittances lifeline to Somalia.

If you go too far in that direction, you close off good people just trying to do legitimate transactions.

We passed the Dodd-Frank Reforming Consumer Protection Act, which created your Office, and I think that was a good thing.

Nobody who is a victim of discrimination or potentially is one would ever say such a ridiculous thing.

I am really pleased that we are having this hearing because there is not enough discussion around civil rights, inclusion at all.

This whole conversation I think just is evidence that people who believe in civil and human rights of all colors better really get busy.

There is no such thing as a Republican or Democrat consumer fraud.

I believe there is a total of $432 million being directly refunded to more than 6 million consumers because of your work.

I really do believe that there is no better foreign aid than remittances.

We have 3,500 kids in Minneapolis who go to school every day from a shelter. It is a disgrace, a national one.

Now, in my own district of Minneapolis, we have an occupancy rate of like 98 percent and we could really use the help that a National Housing Trust Fund for low-income rental housing could provide.

I think it is important for you to note that, because as we are having this very civil conversation, the reality that people are going through--not just individual families but whole neighborhoods.

Our budget focuses on the needs of modern warfare and national defense, simply reducing Pentagon spending to 2006 levels.

It's worse -- this alternative going past the deadline is worse than -- may be worse than what will happen to Americans with disabilities and our older Americans if I don't stand firm and fight for them at this time.

I will not sacrifice the interests of seniors and low-income, poor Americans with disabilities just to come up with some deal.

We're not going to stand back and let seniors, people with disabilities, most low-income vulnerable people in this country, bear the brunt of this fiscal entanglement.