Congressman Elijah E. Cummings Speech on the floor of the House against H.R. 836
U.S. house of Representatives
“Speech against H.R. 836”
March 11th, 2011
Floor of the U.S. House
As I stand here and listened to all of this, there are some things that are missing from this discussion which I think that we are forgetting.
Sometimes I think we forget that this is America.
This is a country that has gained its power through its moral authority, not necessarily by its military might.
We have heard discussions this morning about kicking the can down the road; putting money into a rat hole; and the more I think about it, Madam Chair, I think it is a very sad day when somebody from a state with high foreclosures can get up and talk about destroying a program that will help his own neighbors.
There’s something wrong with that picture.
President Barack Obama uses a term I wish I had invented. He says that we have an empathy deficit in our country.
I wonder what it's going to feel like on Sunday when my colleagues go to church, read from the same Bible that I read from, and can brag about the fact that they were able to kill a program that would allow some 30,000 people to stay in their own homes; while at the same time when I go to church I’ll have to explain to them why they did it.
We are better than that. We are better as a nation, we are better.
It's easy for people to go home; you’ll go home tonight, you'll fly home, you have a nice warm house, but let me tell you about the other America; the America that has come to five foreclosure prevention events that I’ve held in my District, 40 miles away from here. They come in, papers in hand, because they simply want some relief.
They’ve lost their jobs, through no fault of their own. They come in with tears running down their families. They’re Black, they’re White, they’re Hispanic, they’re Asian.
They are Americans.
So you say to them, the dollars that you pay, I don’t want to use them to help you stay in your house.
They are the same Americans that I used to see get on the early bus and go to work. But, now they have no jobs, in part because of the same kinds of efforts we see over and over and over again, getting rid of regulations. The regulations that were not adhered to and were not in place are the very ones that got us where we are is why many of them don’t have jobs and are losing their homes.
We are better than that.
That’s why I was one of the authors of this provision. I am tired of seeing my fellow citizens come in; your neighbors and my neighbors; people that look like your mother and my mother; people that look like your son and my son, tears running down their faces, simply wanting a break. They’re not looking for a handout, they’re looking for a bridge.
So it is when you go to church on Sunday, when they asked you what did you do this week, what did you achieve? You can stick your chest out and say, “yeah, I stopped 30,000 people from staying in their homes. Americans.”
Then there’s another argument that bothers me Madam Chair, they act like we cannot create jobs, and keep people in their homes at the same time.
We can do better than THAT.
So, I hope when you go back and you talk to your neighbors and you say, “a one billion dollar program…” We were trying to get a little bit more, but even in the conference committee, the Republicans cut that down, and now they’re back it again.
I yield back.