[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 111 (Tuesday, July 11, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H6743]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


         AFFORDABLE HOUSING MUST BE PROVIDED FOR ALL AMERICANS

  (Mr. KENNEDY of Massachusetts asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KENNEDY of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, first I might start off 
the morning by hoping that all of our colleagues will perhaps say a 
prayer today for our esteemed colleague, Joe Moakley, who has just been 
raised from critical to serious condition in the hospital after a liver 
transplant in Virginia. He is a terrific fellow, as we all know, and 
deserves our prayers and consideration this morning.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to the action taken by 
the Committee on Appropriations last night in their 25-percent 
reduction in our Nation's housing funding.
  We have decimated our Nation's housing funding over the course of the 
last week and a half. A week ago we cut $7 billion out of the Nation's 
housing. Yesterday evening we cut an additional $7 billion, 25 percent 
of the annual budget.
  We take photo ops and give sound bites in front of the worst public 
housing, ignoring the fact that 90 percent of the public housing in 
this country is in good, decent shape and providing affordable housing 
for the poorest, most vulnerable people in this country.
  Let us stand for something in this country. Let us not conduct a war 
on the poor. Let us conduct a war on poverty. That is what we need, and 
that is where we should be headed.

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