Title: Acknowledging the history and lasting impact of the Federal Government-created problem of redlining and the responsibility of the Federal Government to address such impact.
Policy area: Housing and Community Development

Summary:
This resolution acknowledges the impact of redlining (i.e., geographic discrimination) and states that the federal government has a responsibility to ameliorate its effects, including through the creation, preservation, and maintenance of equitable economic opportunities and recovery efforts in response to the COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 234 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 234

Acknowledging the history and lasting impact of the Federal Government-
  created problem of redlining and the responsibility of the Federal 
                   Government to address such impact.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 16, 2021

 Ms. Clarke of New York (for herself, Mr. Rush, Ms. Sewell, Ms. Lee of 
California, Mrs. Hayes, Mr. Hastings, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Ms. Kelly 
of Illinois, Ms. Pressley, Mrs. Lawrence, Mr. Thompson of Mississippi, 
Mr. Payne, Mrs. Watson Coleman, Ms. Jackson Lee, Ms. Johnson of Texas, 
Mr. Veasey, Ms. Moore of Wisconsin, Mrs. Beatty, Ms. Adams, Mr. Brown, 
  Mr. Carson, Mr. Bishop of Georgia, Mr. Horsford, Ms. Velazquez, Mr. 
Meeks, Ms. Blunt Rochester, Ms. Norton, Mr. Butterfield, Ms. Plaskett, 
    Ms. Scanlon, Mr. Bowman, Mr. Jones, and Mr. Torres of New York) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
                         on Financial Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Acknowledging the history and lasting impact of the Federal Government-
  created problem of redlining and the responsibility of the Federal 
                   Government to address such impact.

Whereas access to opportunity plays a fundamental role in determining the 
        prospects of an individual with respect to achieving upward mobility and 
        the American Dream;
Whereas where an individual lives plays an outsized role in determining the 
        access of such individual to life-altering opportunities, such as 
        finding a well-paying job and avoiding illnesses caused by environmental 
        factors;
Whereas a persistent wealth gap exists in the United States between the wealthy 
        and the vast majority of Americans, a gap that particularly impacts 
        communities of color;
Whereas a lack of wealth increases the vulnerability of a family to 
        socioeconomic emergencies, such as health-related emergencies that can 
        cause financial ruin;
Whereas an income gap only explains a small portion of the racial wealth gap;
Whereas housing, as the most common household asset and largest source of 
        private wealth, is the largest driver of the racial wealth gap;
Whereas Federal Government redlining provided the financial foundation and legal 
        impetus for the racially discriminatory housing practices principally 
        responsible for a disparity in housing wealth;
Whereas redlining used the authority of the Federal Government and leveraged the 
        borrowing power of that Government to reinforce racially discriminatory 
        incentive structures in the housing market that substantially 
        contributed to the persistent segregation still seen today;
Whereas segregation creates an additional barrier to upward mobility for 
        minority communities by concentrating disadvantage regardless of income;
Whereas neighborhoods with high concentrations of Jews and immigrants from 
        Ireland, Italy, Poland, and other Eastern European countries were also 
        redlined, creating a multiethnic diaspora of the intentionally 
        marginalized;
Whereas the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 exacerbated the racial wealth gap;
Whereas intentionally malicious and racially motivated lending practices by 
        large financial institutions directly resulted in the widening of the 
        racial wealth gap in the ruthless pursuit of profits;
Whereas efforts to incentivize the private sector to lend to the victims of 
        redlining and historically financially underserved areas have failed to 
        generate the private lending necessary to close the wealth gap or 
        address disparate access to credit; and
Whereas the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted communities of 
        color and further exacerbated the systemic poverty and barriers to 
        opportunity and wealth cultivation that are woven into the fabric of the 
        economic infrastructure of the United States: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That--
            (1) the history and lasting impact of the Federal 
        Government-created problem of redlining; and
            (2) that the Federal Government has a responsibility to 
        take any and all necessary affirmative actions to ameliorate 
        the direct negative impacts of redlining, including through the 
        creation, preservation, and maintenance of equitable economic 
        opportunities and recovery efforts in response to the COVID-19 
        pandemic.
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