Melvin Watt: “I want to try to frame what this debate is about through the process of this amendment. Mr. Chairman, I was interested…”

“I want to try to frame what this debate is about through the process of this amendment. Mr. Chairman, I was interested in the characterization that the chairman of the subcommittee, the gentleman from New York [Mr. Lazio], made about this bill being a dramatic change in housing policy in this country. I want to make sure that my colleagues understand just how dramatic that change is. I want to spend a minute or two talking about the historical housing policy of this country. Mr. Chairman, the Housing Act that we are repealing under this bill today is the Housing Act of 1937. It started with a declaration of policy which says that it will be our policy as a government to try to remedy the unsafe and unsanitary housing conditions and the acute shortage of decent, safe, and sanitary dwellings for families of lower income. That statement of Federal housing policy was changed in 1949, almost 50 years ago. In 1949, the housing policy was changed to state that it would be the policy of our Government to try to assure the realization as soon as feasible of the goal of a decent home and a suitable living environment for every American family.”