Ron Wyden

The elimination of HOME would be disastrous to the efforts to address our Nation's severe housing needs.

Frankly, addressing these challenges now before they reach a national crisis point will be much cheaper in the long-run.

Why don't you, for the record, get us those ideas, because I think one of the areas I am going to concentrate on is trying to make sure that, as we look at these critically important needs, like increasing the supply of low-income housing…

The Housing Credit and Housing Bonds are the most effective response.

Thank you for this opportunity to testify on behalf of the National Council of State Housing Agencies.

The need for affordable rental housing across the country is great and growing.

This crisis is a five-alarm fire across America.

This crisis will only get worse unless we act.

America's housing policy needs an urgent remodel.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your steadfast leadership in support of the Housing Credit and Housing Bonds over many years.

Simply put, we have a severe shortage of affordable rental homes.

We urge all Senators to become cosponsors.

In my view, this is a bipartisan, smart way to attack the housing scarcity problem.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, let me thank you for focusing today on the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, which is a key part of the tax reform puzzle.

My colleague is right. There is a very regressive effort going forward in the House, the House Budget Committee, and, clearly, this is to try to set up tax cuts for the fortunate few. I was struck by the fact that the President has talked…

There is nothing that would give Medicare bargaining power to make sure seniors get a better deal. There is nothing for the kind of effort our colleague from Vermont and Senator Klobuchar have pursued, which would allow, under…

That is correct. The special interests get very, very substantial tax breaks. Those working-class people lose tax credits, so they actually lose, and, in effect, those dollars can be used for the tax cuts for the fortunate.

A few hundred families benefit so greatly that it could actually cover Medicaid expansion in several States.

Yes, the fortunate few would benefit under the House bill. There is no question about it. To give my colleagues an idea of how regressive those efforts are, they would actually be retroactive. So this idea that these tax cuts for the…

That is correct. It would be accompanied with further misery because it would leave the millions suffering from opioid addiction with nowhere to turn for coverage as a result of this massive rollback in Medicaid coverage under this…

Under this legislation, you would have a massive rollback of the Medicaid Program. So for all of those older people who scrimped and saved all of their lives--they didn't take that vacation; they tried to make sure they could educate their…

While the senior groups have not been able to come before the Finance Committee to discuss this issue, I can say--and I have been working with a number of these organizations since my days with the Gray Panthers--that they are…

It is hundreds and hundreds of dollars and, in a number of instances, more. The reality is that I think they are going to have a lot of trouble getting coverage at all. The reality is, when you pour gasoline on the fires of…

The AARP has also not been in front of the Senate Finance Committee. I want to say again that Senators have said: If they are not going to be in front of the Senate Finance Committee, where we ought to actually hear testimony in line with…

What I can tell my colleagues is that, again, those hospitals have not been in front of the Finance Committee. One of the things I appreciate about so many colleagues on this side of the aisle is that they said: Well, if we are not going…