American Dream Downpayment Act

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and concur in the Senate concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 43) expressing the sense of Congress that Congress should participate in and support activities to provide decent homes for the people of the United States.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on this legislation.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in strong support of this resolution expressing support for Congress Building America and for increased affordable home ownership opportunities.

This country is home to people of many different origins, but everyone seems to have the same dream, to own their own home. This dream means many things: Independence, financial security, geographic stability, the ability to accumulate personal wealth, a place to raise a family, or simply a place to go after a long day's work and find peace.

As a homebuilder for over 30 years, I enjoyed watching many people achieve this dream. One could always see the excitement and anticipation in the face of a home buyer. The Congress Building America program will offer every Member of Congress this opportunity to experience how the dream of homeownership builds hope in their communities and across the Nation.

I feel very strongly about this issue, because homeownership is the key to personal wealth in our country. When someone buys a home, they purchase an asset which will grow over time.

I started the Building a Better America Caucus, BABAC, when I arrived in Congress 4\1/2\ years ago, because I thought it was important to provide a forum for us to start addressing issues that impact homeownership. One of the objectives of BABAC is to help cultivate an environment where more Americans turn the dream of homeownership into reality.

When I first started my business, I had an old van that used more oil than gas and a cardboard box which held every tool I owned. I started small. Over 30 years, my business grew, but with each passing year, I saw the impact of government on the housing industry. With each year came government laws and regulations making it harder to build homes. The red tape kept increasing costs. In business, these costs are passed on to consumers. Homes kept getting more expensive.

It is very important that Congress start talking about how the government is impacting home prices. In some parts of the country, my district in southern California is one of them, the heavy burden of Federal, State and local mandates is creating a generation of people who cannot afford to live in the communities where they work and grew up. I call these people the new homeless.

Exactly who are these new homeless? In my district, it might be a couple. The husband is a firefighter and the wife is a teacher. They have a good job and they make a good living, but the combined income does not enable them to purchase a median priced home in southern California which costs over $300,000 today. This is a national problem, and Congress must work expeditiously to address it.

I encourage all my colleagues to become active members of BABAC so we can do something about the housing affordable crisis in this country.

BABAC provides Members a forum where we can discuss ways Congress can increase homeownership in America. The Congress Building America program provides Members the opportunity to personally help make homeownership a reality for a family in their district.

The Congress Building America program will give every Member of Congress a chance to express their commitment to affordable homeownership by picking up a hammer and nails and building alongside Habitat for Humanity families to make the American Dream of homeownership a reality.

The goal of this resolution is to encourage Members of Congress to participate in Congress Building America events with Habitat homeowner families and local Habitat affiliates in their districts or States during the 108th and 109th Congress. This new initiative is a partnership program between Habitat for Humanity International, the United States Congress, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and national corporate sponsors.

I urge each Member to support this resolution and to personally join with the Habitat for Humanity affiliates in their districts to help low-income families realize the American Dream of homeownership.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Walsh), the author of this resolution.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Watt).

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I enjoyed the one comment: ``This resolution is here so Republicans can just talk about affordable housing.'' The gentleman from Massachusetts and I, we do agree on one major issue: there is a huge shortage of affordable housing in this country. I believe we both have a passion in common to try to resolve this problem. Earlier this year, I brought a bill up before our committee on brownfields. Brownfields are contaminated sites within inner cities where the infrastructure is in place and the need for affordable housing is there. The gentleman from Massachusetts has worked hand in hand with me to bring this to the floor; but because of a lack of agreement on his side of the aisle, none to his blame, we are unable to do that because one Member wants to define brownfields using an EPA definition. The gentleman from Massachusetts and I realize that if you do that you eliminate petroleum sites which are 50 percent of the half million sites in this country. So he and I have worked to resolve something and others are giving lip service to this issue.

There has been much talk about subsidies. We deal with section 8 housing and the need for section 8 housing. We come to an agreement that there is a need for that. But in Los Angeles County, we had the housing authority here, I asked them the question of what is your occupancy rate in California, in L.A. County? They said, we are 97 percent occupied. That means 3 percent of the units that are not occupied are under renovation. Basically, they are 100 percent full. They have no available section 8 housing for people to go to. We can increase section 8 vouchers causing more money to chase no product, and all it does is increase the cost of the product.

But there have been things that have been said here today. We need subsidies which we do provide some. The President has come up with a great idea. He said, let us allow people to take section 8 vouchers, up to 12, and apply them as a down payment to buy a home. That is a great idea. I hope the appropriators this year will fund that program. What we are saying is people who have been locked into section 8 housing can now take the money they would have received in 12 months and put it as a down payment to buy a home, so 10 years, 15 or 20 years from now their payment is the same as it is today, not rising as it does in rental housing. We need to create homeownership rather than just create renters in this country.

There has been a comment made about we need a housing production program. We have that in this program. It is called the Building Industry Association. But government does everything it can to stop builders from providing affordable homes in this country. We have so many mandates on builders. I remember 30 years ago when I entered the industry, you could go out within a matter of 2 months and make application on a tract map to build a tract of homes, whether it be five, 10 or 15; and in 60 days you had entitlements, yes or no. They had to do it because on day 59 you were approved by law. I talk to builders today that have been 3, 4, 5, 8, 10 years processing subdivisions trying to provide affordable housing for the people of this country and they cannot get through the process.

I spend more time helping builders with Fish and Wildlife and Army Corps of Engineers issues. One thing I wish the other side of the aisle would agree to do and that is reform the Endangered Species Act. In Colton, California, there is one project that has 3,000 homes on 3,000 acres. They are only wanting to develop about 300-and-something of those acres, but they happen to have a rat on that property. It is called the San Bernardino kangaroo rat. It is becoming extinct. People who love rats want to set aside habitat for these rats, but they always want to set the habitat aside on privately owned property. That means somebody who owns a piece of land, all of a sudden the government determines that they own habitat that this rat should live on. The problem with the San Bernardino kangaroo rat is it only lives in washes, which means every time it rains during the winter, the little critters drown and the reason they are becoming extinct is the little critters are too stupid to get out of the wash that they are drowning in and go somewhere else. So no matter what we do, those little critters year after year after year are going to continue to be less in population than they are today because they are too stupid to move out of a wash.

There is another great one in California called the Delhi sand-loving fly. I remember years ago when our parents ran this country, we used to swat flies and poison rats. Now we set aside habitat for them on privately owned property. Something is wrong with this country. I think it is incumbent upon us to change it. It is nice to give lip service about affordable housing, and I believe many of my colleagues who spoke today are genuine about a passion; but this resolution allows Members of Congress to actually do something besides give lip service, lean over and pound some nails, finish some concrete, hang some dry wall, put some roofing material on, put some plumbing in, run finish on electrical, paint, hang doors, run casing and base.

We can actually do something besides talk about it. Yes, it is a small gesture; but if you look at the problems we have caused because of the stupid laws and regulations we have placed on the building industry today, anything we do, even if it is small, will help. If we are really talking about helping people get into affordable housing, let us do something genuine about it. More government is not going to solve anything. Yes, more government has created a problem and some believe that government money now should resolve that problem and that is wrong.

If we would just step back at the Federal, State and local level and say, how do we reduce the regulations placed upon the building industry so a person can go out and reasonably buy a piece of property and in a given span of time can build homes instead of 3, 4, 5, 10 years of process. When you take 3 years to get an entitlement, it is costing somebody a lot of money to buy the property and hold it and pay all these consultants to work on the property.

In California, we require builders to go through title 24. That is energy efficiency, which means a home must be airtight, no air infiltration. They even limit it in most fireplaces you can put in that are man-made because they do not want air infiltration in a home. When you have water and no air infiltration, what do you get? Mold. One of the problems we are facing in this country is that insurance companies do not want to write policies because of mold. If we did not have the policies we have today dealing with energy efficiency, perhaps we would not have some of the mold problems we have in this country.

When we talk about affordable housing, let us talk about it in reality. If you are going to have section 8 housing that is available, you have got to have an affordable move-up marketplace, and it is not there today. People in section 8 housing receiving government assistance cannot afford to move out of that house because there is not an affordable unit for them to move into. So if we really want to help people be able to get out of section 8 housing, to actually attain the rights that we believe they should have of homeownership and the luxury that goes along with that, with building assets and everything else, if we really want to do that, then let us look at the structure we have created. Let us pass a law that says any regulation at the State level or the city level that has any negative impact on the cost of housing must have a cost-benefit analysis and you must be able to determine that it is really beneficial to do that, not just something that makes people hug each other and feel good and pat each other on the back. Let us change the way we do business in this country.

I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts.

I take back my time. What I said is a cost-benefit analysis. If you can do something and determine that there is a benefit in the regulations you are placing on affordable housing, that is fine. But for us to sit here and say, oh, we need to have more government programs and more government funding and yet we do not get to the core problem of affordability, you have to get to the core problem of affordability. There is no difference from us saying, let us, the Federal Government, fund housing but you have got to have everybody in agreement we are even going to put it there.

The problem you have with section 8 housing, and the gentleman from Massachusetts knows this to be a fact himself, is you go to many communities and you say you are going to build low-income housing and the whole community is in an uproar because they do not want it in their community because they start saying, you are going to have gang violence, you are going to have problems, you are going to have transients. They do not want it in their communities.

I am not saying that it is bad; I am saying that is just a fact. It is this NIMBY, not in my backyard attitude. That is a problem we face in this country, unless you will change the laws to where a builder has a reasonable time

to process a subdivision. Yes, let us look at the environmental impact that might be placed on the community of a project; let us look at the environment, if there are any species that are going to be harmed there. But let us do it in a reasonable span of time, not 3, 5, 10 years. I told the gentleman from Massachusetts of a project I owned for 12 years that I finally ended up selling to the city because nobody wanted it built, yet there was not a bit of flora or fauna that was in any way impacted, nor was there a species out there that was on the endangered species list. Let us look at the problem and let us work together to see that we are not overturning local rights, but let us work with the local communities.

Reclaiming my time, if we look prior to 1948, the tax revenues in this country generally went to cities. It started to change after 1948. The State started taking more and the Federal Government started taking more. About 1972, it got so bad that locals were being deprived of so much money they could no longer afford to put the streets and the sewers and the storm drains in necessary to build homes. Why? Because the Federal Government and the State government got greedy and started taking the money from the people who need it, the cities. What we have done is create a situation where now the tax dollars are not put in the infrastructure; the builder puts in the infrastructure. Plus he pays for all the local mitigation and impacts that the community might face in some fashion, even if it is a signal 5 miles down the road that might be impacted in some fashion because this tract of 80 people living in it might impact that intersection.

But we have got to look at what government has done. Government has changed to such a degree that we have taken the money, become greedy; and now we do not want to address the problems we can address.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, this resolution is really record-setting. I have not in all my years here seen so much wind up and so little pitch. This goes on quite eloquently and quite accurately about the importance of homeownership, and it talks about the need for affordable housing. It says, ``Whereas an integral element of a strong community is a sufficient supply of affordable housing.'' It says, on the next page, ``Whereas affordable housing may be provided in traditional and nontraditional forms.'' It talks a very good game about the importance of housing, and particularly affordable housing; and it delivers virtually nothing.

I have been lamenting for some time the opposition of my Republican colleagues to a housing production program in this country. In many parts of this country you will not get affordable housing, as we define that, that is housing for lower-income working people, middle-income people in some areas, unless there is some element of subsidy. We are not talking about the Federal Government simply building the housing. We are talking about a whole range of cooperative programs, many of them private-public cooperations. But it is clearly the case that unless the Federal Government contributes something, you will not get affordable housing.

Now, my Republican colleagues have been strongly against most production programs, but I see now they have come up with one. It is in this resolution, which I am going to vote for, because I am all in favor of good wishes. I think we should all, at all times, be in favor of things that we should be in favor of. And this resolution is clearly in favor of a lot of things that we should be in favor of. It just does not do anything about them. Does not make them worse. And it does have a production program.

I call Members' attention to page 3, paragraph 3. It says, ``During the years of the 108th and 109th sessions of Congress, Members of the Senate and the House should sponsor and construct two homes in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.''

Now, the legislative draftsmanship is perhaps not perfect. I will read that as being two homes each. I assume this does not mean that we should all of us build two homes. And I hope not, because there are people here that I would not want to be near them when they had a hammer or a saw or a drill. So I would not want to have to be in a joint effort to build some of these homes.

So we are talking about two homes each for 4 years. Now, there are 535 Members of Congress. Two homes apiece would be 1,070 homes a year for 4 years. So we now have the affordable housing program of the Republican Party for production: 4,280 homes over the next 4 years in the metropolitan Washington area, D.C. and Fairfax County, although they probably would not get that many, Alexandria, Arlington, parts of Montgomery and maybe more in Prince George's.

Now, 4,280 houses is better than nothing, although I have to say I am willing to do my part; and I have to say this, we are not often sufficiently modest around here, and each of us is supposed to build two houses, but, Madam Speaker, I would not want to live in a house I built. There are some things I think I am good at, some things I am not so good at. The notion of all of us building houses is an interesting one.

Actually, this is motivated both by a desire to do affordable housing, but it also carries out the Republican approach to unions. Because their entire production program would be built by overwhelmingly nonunion labor. There are a couple of Members here who are members of unions, although it is rarely the building trades. My colleague from Boston, the gentleman from Massachusetts, was an iron worker; but he can only do so much. And I do not know how many of the houses would be made out of iron or structural steel or whatever anyway.

So here they have a housing production program, 4,280 houses for the entirety of America, built almost exclusively by nonunion labor, without a penny of Federal Government contribution. Unless we built them during work hours. I suppose if we built them during working hours, when we were getting paid, it would be some Federal contribution. I assume the position is that we do not.

Now, I guess I am a little ambivalent about the notion of unleashing every Member of the House and the Senate to build two houses. I know you cannot comment on Senators, I understand that, Madam Speaker; but I think you can comment on past Senators, and I guess I can say that I am pleased Strom Thurmond will no longer be covered by this. It is a lucky thing we did not pass this last year, because Strom Thurmond would have been charged with building two houses somewhere, and I would want to live in those even less than the ones I would build.

But the problem is not so much with what it says, but with what it does not say. We have not for some time had a program in this country to have Federal resources go for housing production. And in the absence of a housing production program, families will have a hard time getting affordable housing. We have some programs that help. We have the programs that help build housing for the elderly and for the disabled. We have the low-income tax credit, which does a good job; but it is limited. We have the section 8 voucher program which works well in a lot of areas, but the section 8 program does not contribute to production, particularly when we have rulings now that say you can only use a voucher 1 year at a time. No one can build a house on a year-by- year commitment.

So I am all in favor of the goals of this resolution. I just wish it did something other than asking this workforce to go out and build a couple of houses a year to carry it out. We have a terrible crisis in this country with regard to affordable housing. And let me just say, Madam Speaker, that one of the arguments we have when some of us talk about the need for the Federal Government to participate in doing things that are important for the quality of our lives, we are told we should not worry about it, the private economy will take care of it.

The private economy does a great deal. The private economy supplies many of our needs, and a private sector is something we should all work for. But there are some things it will not do. And with the very prosperity of the 1990s, which was so important in helping people achieve so many goals, for many people it made the housing situation worse. Because prosperity is obviously not uniformly distributed. Under the policies now in power, it is even less uniformly distributed than ever, as a conscious choice. But even at its best, prosperity will be uneven.

And many people in this country, in the greater Boston area, in the area around San Francisco, in Chicago, in many of our great metropolitan areas people whose incomes were somewhat fixed, many of them public employees, teachers, firefighters, police officers, and social workers, and public works people, people on relatively fixed incomes found themselves worse off in the housing market because prosperity drove up the value of many properties, and some people benefited enormously, and some were left behind.

We are told, well, a rising tide will lift all boats. But if you are too poor to afford a boat, the rising tide will go over your head and drown you. And that happened to many people. The very prosperity of the 1990s that were so welcome nationally exacerbated the housing crisis.

That does not mean the government building all the housing is the answer. It does mean that a sensible, well-funded production program, where the government contributes along with the private sector an element of subsidy so that new housing can be built in many parts of the country, is the only way this resolution will be more than just empty rhetoric.

So at this point we only have this resolution. But we will later in the year have a chance to address this, I hope. I hope the committee which brought this out, the Committee on Financial Services, which has jurisdiction over housing, will be allowed by the leadership of this House to formulate a sensible production program and bring it forward. And if we do, we may be able to rescue this resolution from the charge of being just empty rhetoric.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds.

I notice on page 4 it says each Congress Building America house should be constructed primarily by Members of the Senate and House, their families and staff. Now, presumably, if we do this, it is voluntarily. But if we pass a bill like this and our staffs do it, it might not be voluntary. We might need an interpretation from you, Madam Speaker, under the bill you have been sponsoring. If our staffs show up to build housing and they have to work overtime, would we pay them overtime or would they get comp time?

So I think we will have to have further interpretation when our staffs report for home building, which some of them probably did not sign up for.

Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), a very active leader in the fight for affordable housing in our committee.

Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters) who is the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity of the Committee on Financial Services, and a great leader in this field.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Watt).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee).

Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

I just want to make sure I understand. The gentleman is proposing that we pass a Federal statute that would say that no local zoning regulation could go into effect?

If the gentleman will yield further, I think the gentleman, however, is being inconsistent. I have been critical of the use of local zoning in many cases to block housing proposals, but I do want to be clear. These are local and State laws. The Endangered Species Act is Federal. But most of what the gentleman talked about are local and State laws, and I am asking the gentleman, is he proposing that at the Federal level we pass statutes that regulate and restrict and limit what form local zoning can take, saying that it has to have a cost-benefit analysis, et cetera? I might be interested in joining that, if that is what the gentleman is advocating.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1276) to provide downpayment assistance under the HOME Investment Partnerships Act, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on H.R. 1276 and to insert extraneous material thereon.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 5 minutes.

Mr. Speaker, today I rise in support of H.R. 1276, the American Dream Downpayment Act. There are many people that we need to thank for the point that we have gotten to today to have this tremendous piece of legislation here on the floor of the House. This was a commitment made by President Bush to do this piece of legislation, and Secretary Mel Martinez brought this to our committee when I became chairman of the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity.

I have to also directly thank the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters), our ranking member of the subcommittee, for all of her work, her bipartisan spirit, and her concern for housing for all people from all walks of life, from the rural and urban areas across the United States. I want to thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Oxley) above all, who is chairman of the full committee, for his dedication to this important piece of housing legislation, and obviously also to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank), the ranking member of the full committee. Also on our side of the aisle, and I am sure it will be recognized on the Democrat side of the aisle, but Bob Foster, Carter McDowell, and Peggy Peterson of the gentleman from Ohio's (Chairman Oxley) staff, and also the staff of the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity: Clinton Jones, Cindy Chetti, Tallman Johnson, Bob Weisberg, and Hugh Halpern. Again, I want to thank all of these individuals for coming together to support the American Dream Downpayment Act.

This bill was introduced by the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Harris). This initiative is designed to assist thousands of low-income families realize the American dream of homeownership. Moreover, this new group of homeowners is expected to boost the American economy with an infusion of roughly $256 million.

The benefits of homeownership for families, communities, and our country are obviously profound. When our citizens own homes, they establish roots and therefore have a greater stake in their community's growth, safety, and development.

While the national homeownership rate has steadily risen and is at an all-time high of 60 percent, there are sectors of our population, Mr. Speaker, for whom homeownership remains unattainable. In fact, the homeownership rate for African Americans and Hispanics is less than 50 percent. Clearly, this is unacceptable. More can and should be done to help all of our citizens realize the true benefits of owning a home.

If the persistent gap in minority homeownership is to be substantially narrowed, the structural barriers to homeownership, particularly the lack of capital for downpayments and closing costs, must be addressed. I believe this is one of the major points to the bill. I can remember when my father was able, finally, after 20 years of saving for a downpayment, was able to acquire a house. I was about 10 years old. It was the greatest day of our lives. But I do not think people ought to have to wait 5, 10, 15 years to try to get the downpayment. They will struggle to make the mortgage payment, they will work two jobs to do it, families will; but that downpayment is a serious problem for many people. This legislation eliminates that barrier for families struggling to save for a downpayment, but otherwise would qualify for homeownership. Many low-income Americans, particularly in minority communities, can meet a monthly mortgage payment, but they cannot afford the downpayment and closing costs associated with a standard residential loan.

Improving the ability of Americans to make the transition to homeownership will be an important test of the Nation's capacity to create economic opportunity for minorities and immigrants and to build strong and stable communities. In most cases, the purchase of a home will be the largest and most significant investment an individual will make. Therefore, the home equity created by the home purchase represents a significant share of home household net worth for most American families.

This legislation will provide communities throughout America with $200 million in grants for each year in fiscal year 2004 and fiscal year 2005. An estimated 40,000 low-income families each year will achieve first-time homeownership. Each qualifying family will be given an average of $5,000 to be used toward downpayment and closing costs.

The American Dream Initiative will be administered as part of HUD's HOME investment partnerships program, known as HOME, an existing program that helps communities expand the supply of affordable housing for low and very low income families by providing grants to States and local governments.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1276 included language that would allow HUD to place a maximum cap on the amount of funds certain urban areas could receive under the American Dream program. During this consideration of this legislation in the full committee markup, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Crowley) expressed concern that this language would limit the amount of funds areas would be able to receive.

I would want to note, Mr. Speaker, we have removed the word ``maximum'' on page 5 of the bill as reported out of the committee. The removal of the word ``maximum'' makes the proposed formula in H.R. 1276 consistent with the pattern and practices of other programs under HUD such as HOME and CDBG, and assures that no arbitrary limit is placed on the amount of funds any particular area may receive.

I again want to thank everybody involved with this bill and Secretary Martinez for his personal involvement. I also want to commend the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Rogers) and the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Davis) for their leadership on this important piece of legislation. Without their diligent support, this legislation would not have been possible.

In closing, Mr. Speaker, I want to note that when the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Harris) came to us at the beginning of the session, she said she wanted to be on the Subcommittee on Housing to make a difference for all Americans from all walks of life. I want to note to my colleagues today that she surely has made that difference. Through the leadership of the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Harris), a lot of people across this Nation are going to have, for the first time in their lives, the opportunity to have a home in a family setting.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this initiative.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Harris), the author of the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Renzi), a tremendous new member, but a member that has immediately gotten to work on our Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity to help the people not only of his district, but of the Nation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Gary G. Miller), another great member of our Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity, who has been extremely active in concerns and issues of housing.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Rogers) who actually carried this bill, introduced it last session, and we appreciate his support.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Wilson). He and his staff have been very energetic in support of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Velazquez).

(Ms. VELAZQUEZ asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks, and include extraneous material.)

Mr. Speaker, will the gentlewoman yield?

Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to respond, it is my understanding and I accept the language as was just stated.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

In closing, let me just, once again, thank our chairman, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Oxley) for his diligence and perseverance in the way he has handled the committee, to produce many good products over this session, and when it comes to housing, he has given us the backing we needed; the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank), the ranking member, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters), our ranking member of the subcommittee, who has helped so much on this bill and also to everybody again that made this bill possible.

I just want to conclude by saying it is a dream for many Americans to have their homes, from all walks of life.

We are taking a step today on the floor of this House to do that. This is a bill that every Member of this House can be proud of. It is a bill that they can support, and it is a bill that is going to do something for generations to come as people establish their home, as people are able to take care of their families and be part of their communities in a very, very productive way.

Again, Mr. Speaker, in closing and in urging support, I want to thank the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Harris), who had the desire, the tenacity and definitely put in all the time needed to make sure that this bill became a reality today. Without her, we would not be here today producing this bill, which, again, will help future generations. So I urge support of the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support H.R. 1276, the American Dream Downpayment Act, a bill to assist low-income families in achieving homeownership by providing downpayment assistance under the HOME Investments Partnership Act.

I would like to thank the chairman of our Subcommittee on Housing, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ney), for his leadership. I would like to thank him for his evenhandedness in the management of the committee that helps to bring us all together in support of legislation that makes good sense for all of the Members of this Congress.

I would like to congratulate the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Harris) and tell her how fortunate she is as a new Member to have the support of her administration in seeing to it that she is able to have a bill that will truly do something for American families that we would all like to do. Normally, this bill would be thought of as a liberal bill. This is the kind of bill that the Democrats would normally roll out, if we were in power, because it is talking about spending money, it is talking about spending money for poor people who want to have homeownership, but cannot afford that downpayment.

Downpayments are very tough. Many people who pay their bills regularly, who have never missed paying their utility bills, they pay their rent on time, they work every day, just cannot manage to come up with that 10 percent or 15 percent or whatever is being required in those markets for downpayments. And so that is why this bill is so important.

It would create a new subtitle within the Home Investment Partnerships Act to authorize grant by formula to States and localities for the exclusive purpose of providing downpayment assistance to low- income first-time home buyers; families, that is, with 80 percent or lower of local median income, the formula to be established by HUD, based on a grantee's need for and prior commitment to assistance to home buyers.

The bill authorizes $200 million in funding in each of the next 2 fiscal years. The administration projects that $200 million in funding would assist 40,000 low-income home buyers. The downpayment assistance authorized under this will be administered by the Home Investment Partnership Program that is referred to as HOME. HOME is an existing grant program that helps communities nationwide expand the supply of housing for low- and very low-income families.

The House appropriated $125 million for this program in funding year 2004 VA-HUD appropriations bill approved by the House earlier this summer. This is an increase from the $75 million appropriated in the funding year 2003 VA-HUD budget for the program contained in the omnibus appropriations bill for funding year 2003 passed in February of this year.

Unfortunately, HUD is still writing regulations for this downpayment assistance program and has not yet released the funding year 2003 funding.

According to HUD study, entitled Barriers to Minority Home Ownership, the overall home ownership rate is 68 percent, while home ownership rates for African Americans and Latinos are 48 and 46 percent, respectively. The HUD report established that one of the most persistent barriers to minority home ownership is the lack of capital for downpayment and closing costs.

Without going into a lot more detail, Mr. Speaker, I simply want to say that this is a bill that will get support from both sides of the aisle. Democrats have been advocating for a long time for these kinds of expenditures to deal with the housing crisis in America, and so I expect that we will have unanimous support for this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Davis).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Baca).

(Mr. BACA asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have left on this side?

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume to close out the bill.

Mr. Speaker, this bill is motherhood and apple pie. This is what public policy should be about, recognizing a need and moving to place in law some law that will indeed help those who really do need assistance to realize the American dream. This did not start today, did not start yesterday.

We have a lot of legislators who have worked on this. Congresswoman Roukema is not here anymore. She worked on this, and I think we had it in the 2003 Omnibus bill. We did not get that at that time, but it has been revisited in this way by the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Harris), and again, there will be no opposition. Truly, this is motherhood and apple pie. Homeownership, there are so many people who are desirous of owning their homes, who work every day but cannot afford that downpayment.

I am pleased that we spent time in committee thanks to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ney), and Democrats were able to improve this bill during the committee markup by offering several amendments that were adopted, I would like to thank the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Velazquez), the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Capuano) and the gentleman from New York (Mr. Crowley), and even an amendment that I offered to require targeted outreach programs. My amendment requires participating jurisdictions to conduct outreach to people living in public housing, Section 8 housing and manufactured housing as part of their plan to access these dollars. That means we are taking care of inner city, we are taking care of suburbia and we are taking care of the rural areas. It is not just about public housing. It is about manufactured housing, also, and so we worked to make sure that the outreach that is done is comprehensive. This outreach will ensure more residents will have an opportunity to share in the American dream and break their dependence on public housing assistance.

I am also pleased that the committee report on this bill includes report language clarifying that funds appropriated for this program should be new money and not be offset by a reduction in HOME block grants. Sometimes we come up with bills and we talk about the costs, but yet we do not appropriate new money. We reduce the money in some other pot, and we have language in this bill that will prevent that from happening.

Mr. Speaker, owning a home also can provide a sense of security and contribute to safer, stronger neighborhoods. A financial and personal stake in a residence helps the residents to create a better neighborhood where families, children and all the elderly can thrive and enjoy a better quality of life.

I am pleased to be a part of this committee. I am pleased to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1276, the American Dream Downpayment Act.

As our Nation continues to confront daunting threats both at home and abroad, we cannot neglect the most basic security of all, and that is a safe, clean, adequate place to live. Across our Nation, families and individuals are consigned to deplorable conditions in substandard housing. In a Nation that enjoys a level of wealth and material comfort that is unprecedented in human history, this state of affairs is unconscionable.

We have the power to address this obligation of a decent, compassionate society today. Better yet, we can attack the housing crisis besetting our Nation by attacking the poverty that underlies it.

H.R. 1276 constitutes the first step in fulfillment of President Bush's plan to create 5.5 million new minority home owners by the end of the decade. This visionary initiative will add $256 billion to the American economy.

As I have consulted with housing advocates throughout my district, I have repeatedly heard that a great number of low-income Americans could meet their monthly mortgage payment, but they cannot surmount that initial obstacle of a downpayment and closing costs. Thus, a steep entry fee is all that stands between many low-income Americans and the dignity, the stability, and the economic empowerment of home ownership.

The resulting home ownership gap, which disproportionately impacts African Americans and Hispanic Americans, has staggering economic and social consequences. Studies show that the average worth of a low- income person, about $900, skyrockets to $70,000 when they own a home. In 1998, owner-occupied property constituted 21 percent of all household wealth as well as more than 71 percent of all tangible wealth.

Moreover, the home ownership gap dramatically impacts the lives of our children. Statistics show that children of families who own their own home experience a 13 percent higher graduation together with a 7 percent accelerated rate in math achievement and reading recognition. Additionally, such children complete almost one half year more of education.

For the young people who live in homes their families own, they enjoy a greater level of self-esteem while receiving an indispensable educational exercise in the proper maintenance of personal property.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1276 empowers tens of thousands of low-income Americans to overcome this striking inequality in our land of opportunity. As a compassionate society, we have a moral obligation to empower individuals and families and communities with the tools to build their own prosperity. By authorizing a total of $400 million in grants to communities throughout America over fiscal years 2004 and 2005, this bill will enable 80,000 low-income Americans to purchase their first home.

As we proceed to a vote on this revolutionary bill, I would like to recognize the Bush administration and the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Rogers) for their continued commitment to extending quality, affordable housing to every American, as well as for their tremendous creativity in developing solutions that can help us achieve this goal.

Further, I wish to express my gratitude to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Oxley) and the ranking member, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank) of the Committee on Financial Services, as well as my deepest appreciation to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ney) who has assisted me daily with this bill, and the ranking member, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters) of the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity for their outstanding leadership in shepherding H.R. 1276 through the legislative process.

Finally, I wish to acknowledge the support of the gentleman from California (Mr. Gary G. Miller), as well as my dear friend, the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Renzi) and the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Davis) for his extraordinary bipartisanship. Their passionate dedication to fulfilling this moral imperative of quality affordable housing for every American continues to inspire us all.

I would like to thank our extraordinary committee staff for their diligence and expertise, as well as my outstanding staff member, Miguel Romano, for his diligent work on this bill.

Today, let us reaffirm the expansiveness of the American dream by passing this vital legislation.