Date: 2002-06-17
Speaker: GARY G. MILLER (republican)
Chamber: H
State: California

Madam Speaker. I yield myself 3 minutes. Madam Speaker. this resolution and what the President is trying to do is an attempt to help people. The best thing you can do to help people in this country is enable them to help themselves. I remember when I was a boy. I moved to California when I was a year old from Arkansas. and at that point in time I lived in South Whittier. which was the district of my good friend from the Democrat side. the gentlewoman from California . At that time it was a bunch of immigrants. It was "Arkies" and "Okies". and we had one thing in common. we were poor. My dad left my mother when I was 6 months old and I was raised by my grandparents. We lived in a poor community. but it was our home. and in that home we established pride. and with that pride grew equity. Today that community is still a community of poor people. but now they are from Mexico and Latin America. but they still have the same thing in common that I did with my neighbors at that time: we were poor. Homeownership means a lot. What can we do? We need to make sure that the States understand how important it is that we provide opportunity for people through homeownership. I applaud the gentleman from Massachusetts . The gentleman from Massachusetts looks at this issue. and he understands that section 8 vouchers are great because they help people that need help. but we have never found a unit that has been built with a section 8 voucher. In order to make sure that people have a place to live. we have to make sure that there is an affordable housing stock that is a level above a section 8 voucher. and that is for people to move out of section 8 homes into affordable homes. With that comes equity. and with that comes a future. and with that comes prosperity for their children and their future. We need to do everything we can in this country to focus the light on what the problem is. In many cases the problem is government. We need to focus on that issue fervently. The President and the chairman of HUD. Secretary Martinez. are doing what they need to to look at issues and say how can we fast track the process where people can get permits to build houses. How do we eliminate a lot of the restrictions and red tape and regulations? How do we tackle the Endangered Species Act? I have seen projects in my district that took 5 years to process. where they finally got entitled through the county. only to find because of a lawsuit that the Federal Government placed a mandate over that they now own rat habitat. After 5 years. the project ended up having a designation of "habitat for a rat." I really believe that people are more important than rats. Yes. we need to be concerned about the environment. but there was a time in this country when we used to swat flies and poison rats. Now we set aside habitat for those little critters. The problem is. it is not a federally owned habitat. the habitat is owned by private property owners. and that is wrong. We need to resolve the problems in this country. we need to provide opportunity for people to buy homes. and we need to deal with the new homes properly. Madam Speaker. I reserve the balance of my time.