Melvin Watt: “let me start by saying that we have never postured this as a choice between just the worst possible bill in the world…”

“let me start by saying that we have never postured this as a choice between just the worst possible bill in the world and the status quo. It was my colleagues on the other side who did that. This bill is marginally better than it was last year, and I am going to vote against it because it just has some terrible provisions in it, even though some of the things in it are good. We should support the substitute, the Kennedy substitute, because it is better, but none of us should talk ourselves into believing that either of these bills is going to solve all the problems of the poor as some of my colleagues seem to be insinuating their bill is going to do. These bills are not even going to solve the housing problems of the poor, much less all of the problems of the poor. But the substitute of the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Kennedy] is light years better because it puts emphasis on the drug elimination grant program, which is actually the thing I hear the most when I go home: How can we deal with drugs in these public housing units? What help can the Federal Government give us to deal with this problem? We encourage under Mr. Kennedy's substitute community service, but we do not mandate it.”