[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 38 (Wednesday, February 26, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H1193-H1194]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       INVIDIOUS DISCRIMINATION SHOULD NOT EXIST IN THIS COUNTRY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Green) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, and still I rise a proud American, 
proud to be a citizen of the greatest country in the world, proud to 
proclaim that I am a liberated Democrat, speak truth to power, truth 
about power, unbought and unbossed.
  I am also proud to be aided today with my mnemonic notes. I would 
like to talk to you about invidious discrimination in the United States 
of America, the greatest country in the world.
  I know of no one in this House who believes that invidious 
discrimination is appropriate. I believe that every Member of this 
House will go on record indicating that invidious discrimination should 
not exist in this, the greatest country in the world.
  But what I would like to do is give some empirical evidence of the 
existence of this invidious discrimination and then say a word or two 
about possible remedies.
  Newsday had a testing investigation. On November 17, 2019, Newsday 
released a scathing report detailing an investigation into the nature 
and extent of real estate sales practices on Long Island in New York.
  Now, do not confuse the fact that this was in New York on Long Island 
with the notion that it doesn't happen in other places. It could have 
happened in my city, Houston, Texas, and my belief is it happens every 
day in a good many places around this country.
  The evidence continues with this. The report, titled, ``Long Island 
Divided,'' was the culmination of a 3\1/2\ year comprehensive 
investigation entailing 240 hours of secretly recorded meetings with 
real estate agents and analysis of 5,764 house listings.
  It appears that the Newsday report revealed a 19 percent rate of 
discrimination against Asian Americans, 39 percent rate of 
discrimination against Latinos, and 49 percent rate of discrimination 
against African Americans.
  It appears that the persons who were the agents, the agents who were 
the persons being spoken to by persons seeking opportunities, it 
appears that these agents refused to provide service to customers of 
color--some of them, not all of them.
  They showed borrowers of color far fewer homes than their White 
counterparts, provided inaccurate information to borrowers of color, 
made inappropriate statements based on race, placed higher requirements 
on borrowers of color, and steered potential customers based on race.
  Nobody in this House would agree to this as appropriate. Everybody in 
this House, I believe, would condemn this. But here is where the rubber 
meets the road.
  It is one thing to condemn it and to say that it is wrong. That is a 
talking point. We can have the greatest talking points in the world, 
but this will continue until we make those talking points an action 
item.
  There are things that we can do to prevent this level of invidious 
discrimination. The question is not whether there is a way. The 
question is: Do we have the will to challenge and take on this level of 
invidious discrimination?

[[Page H1194]]

  Because of the many remedies proposed, the one that stands out the 
most is that of increasing the fund for fair housing testing, to do 
exactly what they did with this report, to go into various venues and 
test and acquire this empirical evidence.
  Nobody wants to see this happen, but we cannot stop it by simply 
talking about it. We have to have an action, and the action item is 
testing.
  I will be saying more about this later on this week because there is 
legislation right here pending in this House that we can bring to the 
floor of this House, pass, and we can prevent this kind of behavior 
from taking place because, when we acquire the empirical evidence, we 
can then confront those who do this. We can also educate them, and we 
can pass on a legacy to future generations of success in ending 
invidious discrimination.

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