Thursday, February 28, 2008

U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
Floor Statement on Housing Stimulus Legislation
Remarks as Delivered on the Senate Floor

Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, I wish to acknowledge the kind remarks of Senator Schumer with regard to a proposal I have made. For the public's edification and amplification, nobody over here is just saying no, except the majority leader just said no to offering our amendments to the stimulus package we want cloture on. What we are going through right now are some gymnastics and the gymnastics are this. Members on both sides of the aisle want to do something because we do recognize there is a housing problem, because there are ways we can help the American public. But you can't address all those ways if you don't allow all those ideas to be debated as a part of the amendment process on the legislation.

So I appreciate the kind remarks of the Senator regarding my proposal, but a favorable comment doesn't do us any good if you can't offer the amendment on the floor. I don't think I have all the good ideas. I don't think they have all the good ideas. I think, collectively, we probably do have all the good ideas. But this is not about just saying no. This is us saying yes to a process that is open, a process that is debatable, a process where we can reach out and try and help the American people, particularly those who are having great difficulty because of the housing market today.

So I wished to throw that in. My remarks were intended to be about Iraq, which I am going to close with, but I had to respond to the statements the Senator from New York made.

Mr. MARTINEZ. Madam President, would the Senator from Georgia yield for a moment before you go to the Iraq comments?

Mr. ISAKSON. I am happy to yield.

Mr. MARTINEZ. I wished to follow up on the Senator's comments because there are a number of amendments that would be worth considering when we look at the problem we are facing.

First, I heard the Senator from New York. He is wrong to suggest that the President and the Republicans do not understand there is a problem in America. People are being foreclosed on, and there are families sitting at the kitchen table to see how to save that precious piece of the American dream
they have--their home. We are trying to help in that regard as well.

The stimulus package we did a few days ago was a bipartisan measure. What we should do now with the housing package is work that as a bipartisan idea as well, coming together as both Republicans and Democrats to make it better. The Senator from Georgia has a terrific idea, one I support and I think would make a lot of sense in the current situation in Florida in the housing market, and there are a number of other ideas. One has to do with whether mortgage brokers--Senator Feinstein and I bipartisanly have come together on this--whether there ought to be a national registry for mortgage brokers. Senator Carper and I have worked together on a number of things that would improve the housing passage.

We cannot simply say or follow a pattern that seems to be the current pattern in the Senate, which is that it is put forward by the majority, which then forecloses the ability of the minority to have amendments. The minority leader proposed five amendments per side, and that was rejected. This bill will go down if all they want is a symbolic moment for the Senator from New York to tell the Republicans how they are heartless and don't care about the poor and don't understand that America has problems with housing, and then we will go about our business as usual. If they do that, cloture will not be invoked and nothing will be done. Five amendments to a side seems to be a reasonable way of doing it if we want to get something done.

Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, I thank the Senator from Florida, and I acknowledge that he is a former Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, who has done tremendous work on the housing issue. I concur with each of his remarks.

I will close with this. When you talk about "just say no," we ought to have been on the stimulus debate when we got back here on Tuesday. For some reason, and because the majority wanted to, we have been debating the Iraq situation while the stimulus and housing sit on the sidelines. I hope we can get through these gymnastics and get to a situation where we can debate good ideas on both sides and not preclude and leave people out. Instead of saying "just say no" to amendments and to a sincere effort, say yes to what this body is all about: deliberation, decisions, and doing what is right for the people of America.