Today, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (NY-10), a veteran Member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, delivered the following statement on the House floor on Section 8 housing vouchers and funding our national transportation infrastructure:

"Thank you Mr. Speaker, two of our central responsibilities as Members of Congress are to support a strong national infrastructure and to ensure that every American has a place to call home. The funding levels provided in this legislation will make it impossible to fulfill either of those responsibilities. There can be no question that we must put people back to work and bring our crumbling outdated infrastructure into the 21^st century. At the funding levels provided in this bill few of those goals can be accomplished. The bill cuts the FTA’s capital investment grant program more commonly known as New Starts by $252 million. It includes a $500 million cut to the Tiger Grant program, funding it $1.15 billion below the President’s request, and cuts $200m from Amtrak capital funding while providing no funding for high-speed rail. Beyond simply cutting critical funding the bill places restrictions on the use of Tiger Grants on high-speed rail and it exempts three states Wisconsin, Mississippi and Idaho from truck size and weight limits on federal highways. Congress should not preempt the comprehensive study currently being conducted by USDOT and required as part of MAP-21, the last legislation we enacted on the subject, by enacting piecemeal riders and appropriations bills. The devastating impact these cuts will have on our economy will only be exacerbated by the cuts to vital housing programs for hard-working families.

"The Home Investment Partnership Program  is funded at its lowest levels since its creation in 1992 and the Public Housing Capital Fund falls below its sequester funding level adding at least $1 billion to the backlog of capital needs. But perhaps the most startling is the failure of this legislation to provide enough funding for every low income senior and hard-working family to access affordable and secure housing through our tenant-based rental assistance program, or Section 8. My amendment finally provides enough funding for HUD to renew every Section 8 voucher including the 70,000 vouchers lost under sequestration and to support robo-staffing of public housing agencies around the country. Rental assistance helps 2.1 million very low-income households rent modest homes in the private market at an affordable cost. Households who use Section 8 have incomes well below the Federal poverty line and nearly every household using a Section 8 voucher includes children, seniors or people with disabilities. Research consistently demonstrates that this program reduces poverty, housing instability and homelessness and helps families live in safe, healthy communities.

"Despite this success only about 1 in 4 eligible low-income families receives Federal rental assistance. Long waiting lists remain in nearly every community even as the number of poor families who pay more than half their monthly income for housing costs has risen 28% since 2007.  These long waitlists are exacerbated by a lack of administrative funding for public housing agencies. In the past, Congress consistently provided the necessary funds to ensure that no one receiving a Section 8 voucher loses access to affordable, decent and stable housing year to year. But sequestration has had a devastating impact on Section 8. With inadequate funding for voucher renewals and extreme cuts to administrative fees, state and local housing agencies assisted an estimated 70,000 fewer families at the end of 2013 compared to a year earlier. The increased funding that Congress provided through the FY14 budget agreement restored less than half of those vouchers, leaving 40,000 very low-income families with no access to affordable housing. This bill does nothing to help those families.

"My amendment will ensure that public housing agencies can renew every current voucher and restore those lost under sequestration. The amendment funds Section 8 voucher renewals at the President’s request of $18 billion and provides an additional $320 million dollars to provide vouchers to the 40,000 families who lost access due to Congress’ inability to address sequestration. Of course this additional funding would go a long way to ensuring that every family who qualifies for rental assistance finds a home. However, at the funding levels for administrative fees in this legislation it would be impossible for public housing agencies to hire and maintain enough staff to process and renew vouchers. We cannot continue to undermine our hard-working public housing agencies by failing to provide them enough money to function yet once again this bill woefully underfunds administrative fees for public housing by providing only $1.35 billion, a $150 million reduction from last year’s enacted level.

"My amendment would finally address the undercutting of public housing agencies by providing an additional $335 million to match the President’s request of $1.7 billion for administrative fees. Mr. Speaker, our first priority must be to ensure that every working family, every senior, and every child has access to a safe, healthy and affordable home. This amendment will guarantee that no one has to choose between paying their rent and putting food on the table. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment and I yield back the balance of my time."

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