Sheila Jackson Lee: “Let me give my greatest appreciation to the gentleman from New York, who will remain at the podium as he has yielded to…”

“Let me give my greatest appreciation to the gentleman from New York, who will remain at the podium as he has yielded to me, and to thank him for the leadership that he has given to so many issues. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman for the leadership work that he took to Puerto Rico that will need housing, and the U.S. Virgin Islands that will need housing. The neighborhoods that he has just mentioned, I am quite familiar with. I know those neighborhoods in New York. I have relatives in New York. But I also know the neighborhoods in Texas, and I know the public housing developments. I want to join the gentleman in that terminology because, remember, it used to be the projects. But we know that public housing developments are where people live. It is where they raise their children. When you have a home in the public housing development, it needs maintenance, elevators, window reinforcement, hallways cleaned up, painting done, and, yes, debugging, and brick-by-brick repair, or it may be a new addition. All of my life, I have met my classmates in public, elementary, and middle school, and they live in the housing developments, many of whom I could go back to, and they are doctors, lawyers, teachers, business persons, and Congresspersons. They are upstanding citizens.…”