Rick Lazio: “in these last few minutes of this debate after 3 weeks of having this bill on the floor with over 60 amendments, this…”

“in these last few minutes of this debate after 3 weeks of having this bill on the floor with over 60 amendments, this body is about to make a choice about the direction in which we are going to begin to address not just shelter but the core issue of poverty. Because the bill that we have before us today is not just about shelter. It is about trusting local communities. It is about ensuring that there is accountability. It is about getting value for our dollars. It is about transforming communities. It is about addressing some of the toughest issues that we have in America today. Yes, it is absolutely true that we will never be able to legislate an end to poverty from this House. There will be no bill that will be signed that will end poverty. The best that we can hope for is that we will begin to put in place a set of incentives for work, for family, for local control, for responsibility, and for accountability that will begin to mobilize the huge potential of human resources that we have in our own communities. There are those in this body on both sides of the aisle that believe we should tap into that huge human resource, that we should trust local control. In this bill we protect the poorest of the poor, but we also say that local housing authorities ought to have more choice so they can deal with their own problems. This is one of the public housing projects, not in some third world country but in America today. It is perversely called Desire in New Orleans.”