Melvin Watt: “I just want to make it absolutely clear that the statement of purpose, the goals for which I am substituting in this…”

“I just want to make it absolutely clear that the statement of purpose, the goals for which I am substituting in this amendment contemplate partnerships, public and private. It contemplates everything that the gentleman from New York has said is important to him. But it makes explicit also that we are not abandoning the goal that we have had for housing in this country, not even public housing, just housing in general, decent and affordable housing. We have had that goal for 50 years, and all of a sudden these new breed come in here and they think there is something magic about their new philosophy and we ought to abandon everything, which is just extreme.”