Rick Lazio

my concern here is not that we have local participation. As a matter of fact, we spend a page and a half in the manager's amendment speaking to the fact that the housing authorities should integrate into the community and have local…

Mr. Chairman, my disagreement with him on this issue has to do with who initiates the changes that would basically define low and very low income for purposes of making adjustments to basically definitional issues. Our position is to have…

The important aspect of this for me is to insure that the language which speaks to what I believe is the Federal role in terms of it being a partner is preserved to the extent that there is additional material that is inserted that is…

I am also supportive and always have been supportive of allowing local housing authorities to determine, based on their own particular local circumstances, whether it makes sense to have pets in mixed populations where seniors may want…

I would tell the gentleman, we cannot do it alone. We are meeting the needs of only one out of every four people who are otherwise eligible for affordable housing in this country. Let me tell the Members, of the one in four who are lucky…

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…

Nobody wants a situation of a State Street, of a New Orleans or a Detroit. I remember getting this small document from the Department of Housing and Urban Development about the 40 largest public housing authorities, places like Atlanta…

Let me just correct some misperceptions laying out here on the floor with respect to the so-called Brooke amendment, which is a job killer. There is a presumption here that, if we maintain the tie between salary and rent as a percentage…

Yes. The intent of this legislation is to ensure that well-run housing authorities are not penalized for their success. Rather, they are rewarded for operating efficiently, and they are given appropriate levels of flexibility to reward…

the only thing that is extreme is some of the things that are being said and the way some people here are measuring compassion, which is to concentrate poverty and condemn people to another 40 years of terrible circumstances. In the…

let me say, first of all, with respect to the gentleman's initial comment, what I am advocating is that those people who seek public housing live in the same world that people who go out there and look for an apartment to live in, which is…

HUD will decide who is exactly awarded contracts to do the work that the housing authority was supposed to do, or the not-for-profit or for-profit.

I have no objection if a local community wants to have 100 percent of the people on the board that are residents. What I do have an objection to is getting back to the model where again one size fits all and Washington knows best.

I think that we have a fundamental difference of opinion with respect to the amendment. I tried to meet the objection in terms of having the direct election of a resident to the board and in the manager's amendment that was adopted. Now I…

Mr. Chairman, I want to compliment the gentlewoman from Texas for her interest in ensuring that there are appropriate levels of due process for people that may be aggrieved in terms of administrative decisions. Let me suggest, however…

Mr. Chairman, it is ironic as we consider this housing bill, one that makes communities responsible for their own planning and development, that in the area of Baltimore, HUD is negotiating a plan like the one described by the gentleman…

the decision ultimately, under what I am suggesting, will be made by the local housing authority itself or the successor to the housing authority, as opposed to mandating it.

the way this bill operated, which is not the way it has operated, gave discretion to the housing authority. The individual vendor that controlled the management of the units would make the call, if they were operating successfully, in…

The dysfunctional housing authorities would effectually be defunded under the plan that we have before us. Those that are highly functioning will be given the flexibility that they all request and all deserve.

We judge, we make the judgments, but we do not live with the consequences of those judgments. We can send out a press release and think we have done something very important. We can take care of a political constituency. But who is…

I say to the gentleman the problem is that you will have a situation in some areas where one person in a particular public housing hall will be allowed to have a pet. The person next door will not be allowed to have a pet. We want to make…

therein lies the problem. I agree. Local control allows the locals to decide whether pets should be allowed or not, depending on their particular circumstance, but we are not suggesting this in this amendment. We are suggesting in this…

If the gentleman from Massachusetts will yield back, I do not want to make that decision at all. I want the local community to make that decision.

I find that perfectly acceptable. That is exactly what I am arguing for, local control.

I rise today to support S. 641, the Ryan White CARE Act amendments conference Report. I am a cosponsor of the House bill. It is long overdue and I am glad that Congress is finally completing its work on this measure. New York has been hit…