Rick Lazio: “Mr. Chairman, I know we all want the same things, but we all have not done the same things to help people who are the…”

“Mr. Chairman, I know we all want the same things, but we all have not done the same things to help people who are the poorest of the poor who are living in public housing. It was not this majority that imposed the one-for-one requirement which said that we cannot demolish the most dilapidated buildings in public housing, and we force communities to live in the shadows of crime, many cases crime-ridden structures with broken windows that are falling apart. It was not this majority who said frankly that there should be no home ownership opportunities for people that will have vouchers, but we are beginning the process of moving in the other direction, and this amendment does it. Mr. Chairman, there cannot be any larger philosophical divide between the gentleman from Massachusetts and the other side of the aisle than the self-sufficiency, the tenant self-sufficiency contract. In our amendment, Mr. Chairman, we say that somebody who comes into public housing enters into a contract with those people who are supervising that housing authority.”