Rick Lazio: “I wanted to thank both the gentleman from California and the gentleman from Indiana for their interest and commitment to…”

“I wanted to thank both the gentleman from California and the gentleman from Indiana for their interest and commitment to manufactured housing. It is one of the preeminent affordable housing tools that we have in America, and I want to say that we should be taking every reasonable action to preserve the Federal manufactured housing program. In order to provide for the adequate staffing of the manufactured housing program, which is largely, as the gentleman said, self-funded through industry label fees and currently has a surplus in excess of $7 million, I recognize that it may be necessary to exempt the manufactured housing program from overall HUD and OMB salary and expense caps and create separate and distinct caps for the program. That would only be fair and reasonable under the circumstances. In fact, I circulated a letter to Secretary Cuomo signed by 72 Democrats and Republicans in the House expressing support for such changes.”