Melvin Watt

I don't much care about Mr. Christie or his political ambitions or his history here. I am really more interested in the public policy implications here which he seems to be tone deaf to.

We have a very strong interest in trying to assist minority automobile dealers who have been underrepresented in the industry for years.

I think we need to separate the municipal bond market from the corporate bond market and have them rated separately.

I think it elevates housing counseling within HUD by establishing an Office of Housing Counseling...

I do not think every issue ought to be federalized, and we ought not preempt everything that goes on at the State level.

Mr. Watt and I introduced legislation 6 years ago that would have forbidden the mortgage practices that have brought our Nation's economy to grief.

I question, in the middle of a national credit crisis, why would we want to make credit more expensive and less accessible?

You either believe in federalism or you do not believe in federalism.

I am not coming to any hearing to have a trial on ACORN. That is not my job.

I was listening to this debate, and the only thing I could be reminded of was a few years ago when I had a very, very serious political campaign mounted against me and that had about $800,000 spent on television ads telling people how…

I rise today to recognize an historic anniversary of the National Crittenton Foundation, which was the first charitable organization created under a congressional charter, and is celebrating 125 years of service. People who recognize the…

Mr. Chairman, listening to the gentleman, one would think that the demolition-only program is a harmless program in the Federal Government. It is absolutely true that the Bush administration has decided not to use the demolition-only…

Let me conclude, then, by just expressing our sincere thanks to our colleagues on the Republican side and to all of the members of the staff for their work on this bill. We think it is a good bill. It is a bipartisan effort to increase…

I will give him the same assurance. And I said it in my statement because I just got the gentleman's amendment yesterday or the day before, and I confess that my amendment to his amendment may not accomplish everything that both of us are…

I have listened to and acknowledged the concerns that are raised by the other side and by Mr. Perlmutter from our side about this provision. It is clear that certainty has value. But certainty when certainty is unfair and when you are…

my good friend Mr. Hensarling may be surprised to know that we actually agree very much with the spirit of what he is trying to do. And I am not sure that my amendment will absolutely cure all of the concerns we have with it, but it will…

this amendment, on its face, is very, very simple, although I expect there will be some controversy about it. The amendment simply changes one word. The word is ``or.'' We change the word to ``and'' in the bill instead. You would think…

once again, Mr. Garrett has focused on an issue that we talked about earlier in the debate. I offered an amendment and withdrew it, and it related to this general section. Basically, what we have done is allowed the lenders to presume, if…

The bill, as currently constructed, caps damages at the amount of three times the broker or lender fees for steering. It's crucial to increase the remedies for steering so that a limited remedy does not simply get figured into the cost of…

But I think I would be remiss not to discuss the issue because of two reasons: Number one, it needs to be discussed because of the very difficult, delicate balance that the Chair has been able to walk to get us to this point; and number…

I would just add to that, on the floor today time after time after time, I have said that the great, great, great majority of the lenders are abiding by the rules. It's not those lenders who created this crisis. It is those people who are…

I hope my colleagues will stay around, since they want to know the rationale for the 4-year extension versus the permanent extension, and listen to the rationale, because there is both "practical rationale" and there is "substantive…

I did want to spend a little bit of time talking about the annual legislative conference that was conducted by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation this past weekend. I heard the comments of my colleague from California, Ms. Diane…

We did talk about that, and we are watching that case very carefully, as well as another case out of North Carolina, which is an attack on whether the Voting Rights Act protects congressional districts that are not majority minority, such…

This has kind of turned out to be the kind of debate that you hear in politics: Democrats believe in government and government can do everything; and Republicans believe in the private sector, and the private sector can do everything. The…