Barney Frank For Congress - Housing

Bush's Hud Budget: Making The Worst Worse

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 17:01:44 -0500

"It is widely understood that America faces a housing crisis...Presidend Bush's response to this crisis, embodied in the 2007 budget proposal he has put forward, is to make the "worst" even worse." 2/14/06

Frank attacks GOP,s inadequate funding for housing programs

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 03:41:35 -0400

"I invite Members to return with me to thrilling days of the Reverse Houdini. That is what we are seeing today on the floor. Older Members will remember Harry Houdini who had an act. His act was to have other people tie him in knots and then appear before the public and get out of the knots. What my Republicans colleagues will show you today…is the Reverse Houdini. Under the reverse Houdini, you tie yourself in knots. Then you appear before the public and tell them how much you wish you could help them, but you cannot because you are all tied up in knots. You do not mention that you tied the knots…I admire what you did with inadequate resources, but I do not admire that you are the ones who made the resources inadequate. Members who voted for the tax cuts do not come to the floor with clean hands when they talk about the consequences of the tax cuts…The gentleman said he wished he could do more for CDBG. Well, who is stopping him? What is stopping him in the budget he voted for. The budget he voted for was dictated by the tax cuts he voted for. Click Here to Read Congressman Frank,s Full Remarks From the House of Representatives June 29, 2005 Debate on Funding for Housing Programs

Excerpt from June 2, 2005 Washington Post column by David Broder

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 01:24:37 -0400

Frank played a lead role in the successful effort to include an affordable housing program in the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac legislation adopted by the House Financial Services Committee

"When the bill was being drafted last week, the two key Republicans, Ohioans Michael G. Oxley and Robert W. Ney, the chairmen, respectively, of the full committee and its housing subcommittee, decided that to lock in Democratic support, they would include a proviso from the committee,s top Democrat, Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, to earmark 5 percent of Fannie and Freddie,s annual profits for preservation, rehabilitation and construction of low-income housing."

Excerpt from February 24, 2005 Boston Globe article, 'Bush,s budget trims grants for housing, youth programs,

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 01:07:05 -0400

"The President has made a pledge to cut the deficit in half. Given the tax cuts and the war, there is no way he can do that other than by savaging well-run programs," said US Representative Barney Frank, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee, which has jurisdiction over housing and community development programs. "The way the wicked stepmother treated Cinderella looks wonderful by comparison."

Excerpts from Congressman Frank,s remarks in a June 12, 2005 appearance on ABC,s "This Week" hosted by George Stephanop

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 03:42:55 -0400

"…and it,s another problem we have in America, where we look about things only for middle and upper-income people. One of the big problems we have in housing now is that it,s too expensive for low-income people…And, frankly, a moderation in housing prices, a leveling off, even a slight drop, for instance, in the Boston area, which I represent, would be a socially good thing."

"We,re subsidizing home ownership. And, by the way, I think home ownership is a good thing, but that,s another problem of public policy, and it,s particularly a problem with this administration.

What we should be promoting through public policy are decent homes, not necessarily home ownership. We have denigrated the notion of renting…There is this notion that people say, Well, if you,re a renter, you don,t care, you,re irresponsible. Only homeowners are good for the neighborhood. Most lower-income people are going to have to rent, and I think by public policy, and by kind of psychic pressure, we are pushing more people into home ownership than is healthy."

Wall Street Journal Editorial Credits Frank on Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Bill

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 01:03:58 -0400

Even the hyper-conservative Wall Street Journal editorial page grudgingly termed Frank a "crafty liberal" in a June 14, 2005 diatribe against the proposal to include an affordable housing fund in the pending Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSE) bill that would make changes in the operation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Frank is a leading proponent of the fund.