Rick Lazio: “Under the terms of H.R. 2 we ask every tenant to pay a minimum rent. That minimum rent can be set by the local housing…”

“Under the terms of H.R. 2 we ask every tenant to pay a minimum rent. That minimum rent can be set by the local housing authority at between $25 and $50 per month. There are people who object to the fact that a minimum rent is established, or that it is established at that range from $25 to $50 a month. The amendment of the gentlewoman from New York would suggest that the minimum rent ought to be from $0 to $25, so that their minimum rent might be $5 a month or $4 a month. The very idea that we have been talking about so much over the last 4 days is that we need additional help for more people, that there is need out there for more people. But when we say to a family who receives public housing, and very often the additional benefit of utilities, that they do not have to do anything, they do not even have to pay a minimum rent of $25 or $30 or $35, what we are saying to the people who are on the waiting list, to people who cannot even get into public housing to begin with and who are paying market rate is, they are going to have to wait out there a whole lot longer because this family is not willing to do its fair share.”