Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 5 minutes prior to the scheduled vote. Madam President, I thank the ranking member for her kind comments and for her hard work on behalf of the American people. People oftentimes…
Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 5 minutes prior to the scheduled vote.
Madam President, I thank the ranking member for her kind comments and for her hard work on behalf of the American people.
People oftentimes ask the question: Is there anything that is not broken in the Nation's Capital?
I will tell the Presiding Officer, as a great member of the Banking Committee herself, that the answer is that there are some things that are not broken to the point they cannot be fixed in the Nation's Capital. One of those things is our ability to not think left or right, blue or red, Black or White, rich or poor; it is to think about and focus on the journey many of us have taken to become U.S. Senators.
The fact of the matter is that I grew up in the Deep South, in South Carolina, in a little place called North Charleston. Without any question, having grown up in a single-parent household mired in poverty, the issue of housing is particularly interesting to me.
I remember when my parents were divorced, my brother, my mother, and I shared a bedroom and a bed for years in a little 700-square foot, rented unit by my grandparents. I will tell you that the American dream just seemed out of reach for so many in my neighborhood--certainly for those of us living on Meeting Street Road, which was a dirt road during those times.
Later, my mother was able to afford a small apartment that was 600 square feet or so, and my brother and I had the pleasure of having our own room that was separated from my mother's. That is what I called a blessing from the God, the King of Kings himself--without any question.
But my mother and my grandparents taught me something very powerful and necessary. They taught me faith in the Lord, perseverance through hard times, and opportunity. Those three together can transform the hardest of hard circumstances, and that belief has guided my work on this very important issue of housing.
Young people today are feeling in a similar fashion that I did then in that they are delaying marriage, they are delaying having kids, they are delaying putting down roots--not because they lack ambition but because housing prices are too darned high and housing supply is too low. Rent is too high, starter homes are too hard to find, and the American dream slips further and further away for far too many.
Even the Senator from Pennsylvania is so excited that he had to recognize the Presiding Officer. I will simply say that the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act even gets the junior Senator from Pennsylvania's vote. You may ask yourself, why is that the case? I have four really important reasons that is truly the case.
First, it is because we cut redtape, and when you cut redtape, you actually reduce the cost of housing.
Second, it unlocks the housing supply. When you put more housing supply on the market, more people have a chance to become a first-time home buyer. Today--today--today--the first-time home buyer is 40 years old. It is just too old.
Our bill protects taxpayers. Some have asked the question, how does this make housing more affordable? I want to highlight two provisions-- one that the ranking member talked about, which is what President Trump said during his State of the Union. It is simple: Houses should be for people and not for corporations. We make it easier for people to have access to housing because of the provision that President Trump placed in this legislation.
Now, why are there Republicans who disagree with the President on this one? I don't know. You will have to ask those Republicans.
John Kennedy and the ranking member have a piece of legislation that we embedded in this bill that simply says something that is remarkable from Congress, remarkable from the Senate, and that is, frankly, common sense to everybody outside of Washington, DC: If you build more housing, you should get more incentives. If you don't build more housing, you should lose those incentives, and they should go to the places where they are building more housing. Yes, I recognize this is common sense everywhere but here.
Finally, I will say that the House of Representatives did a fine job of embedding in this housing legislation important priorities that I believe will make housing more affordable, more accessible, and, frankly, that will help banks--community banks, which are the primary places you go for a mortgage--be more engaged in this process. Once again, this was a bipartisan, bicameral issue to do the work of the people.
I will close with this because I know my 5 minutes is nearly up. If we would just focus on the American people and listen when they speak, we would remember two things: No. 1, they hire us, and we work for them. No. 2, like E.F. Hutton--the Presiding Officer is too young to know who he is--when E.F. Hutton speaks, we ought to listen. Our E.F. Hutton is called the American people, and when we listen, we bring this Nation closer together.
Public service should not be about those of us in public service; it should be about the journey we took. For me, that is as a kid born into poverty to a great mother who believed in faith, perseverance, and opportunity. If we do our part, more kids today who are being raised in similar situations and circumstances that I was might have hope in the American dream.
Somewhere, you can read faith, hope, and love. Hope is not a bad second place, though. Let's provide more hope and more results for more Americans by simply doing the right thing.
Amendment Withdrawn
Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to withdraw Thune amendment No. 5824.
