Melvin Watt: “I took a lot of heat for reinstating it. But it was a statutory mandate, and I did not see a reason not to follow the…”

I would certainly emphasize that if anybody here has the notion that I believe that I am above the law, they should dissuade themselves of that notion.

if you look at my record throughout my whole life, from the day I started in the practice of law in a civil rights law firm, you will find nobody, or few people, who are more committed to the things that you all have talked about today.

Only in America could somebody be confirmed to this position that has the regulatory authority over the bulk of housing in this country.

There is no rational reason, if you think about it, why a superior tax lien would be having an interest rate of 10, 11, 12 percent when a lien subordinate to it is going at 4 percent or 5 percent.