Barney Frank

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Yes, in decades. I thought the gentleman said 30 years. I would not claim that it was the largest in 30 years, but it certainly has been the largest since the Republicans took power 12 years ago since they tried to kill them all.

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, I rise to try to save the bill from this effort to kill it.

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. How much time remains, Mr. Chairman?

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 1 minute just to say that the assertion that this is ignoring the private market would be more persuasive to me if it were not for the fact that every organization that is engaged in the private market building of housing disagrees. The National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Home Builders, neither of which are known for its socialist tendencies, have written letters in support of this bill exactly as it has been presented. They who fully understand the market, and we don't just use boilerplate rhetoric to describe it, understand the importance of interactivity between some public sector participation and the market, and this creates no new government bureaucracies. This funds existing State and local housing programs. The Federal role will be for HUD by a formula to distribute it. It is a funding mechanism for the State and local authority. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Al Green).

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. So much for tomorrow, Madam Speaker.

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, can the standing rules of a committee be waived by actions on the floor?

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Parliamentary inquiry.

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, is there anything in this recommittal motion that would allow me, as chairman of the committee, to ignore the rule that requires a 3-day notice before there is a markup, which would seem to me to make it impossible for me to report it tomorrow, on the day of a funeral, very sensitive, but is there anything in this amendment that would waive the 3-day requirement for a markup before we could proceed?

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Well, then, let me ask in general. Does a recommittal motion waive the rules----

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, this is a very reasonable and thoughtful amendment from the gentleman from Maryland. What it says is that we hope this program is established, we hope that there will be entities that will be repeat applicants. We just want to make explicit that if people have gotten a grant and now come back for another one, they be very explicit about what they have done with it. It is, I think, a very useful kind of oversight that's built into the program. It may seem obvious, but we sometimes read about people getting renewed programs when they haven't done a very good job in the last one. This won't make that absolutely impossible, but it will make it less likely. I think it is a very useful amendment by the gentleman from Maryland, and I hope it's adopted. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, as the designee of the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen), I offer the amendment that is now in order.

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Further parliamentary inquiry. Is there anything in this process that would allow the chairman of the committee to waive the requirement in the rules that there be at least 3 days before there can be a markup in committee?

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, I yield the balance of my time to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) so that she can speak for herself.

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, we have in our committee been working hard to try to incorporate pro-environmental, energy- saving measures, measures that would reduce global warming. And this is an amendment offered by the gentleman from Rhode Island that is very much in tune with this. Mr. Chairman, for further elaboration, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer).

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, the gentlewoman from California, representing a high-cost area, Marin County, especially, in California, confronts the problem that many others confront, but she has it particularly in her district where workers in a municipality can't afford to live in the city in which they work. So what her amendment does is to propose that with one- to four- family owner-occupied housing, the grantees who receive this money can give preference to public safety officers, teachers, et cetera. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, the gentleman from Washington has been a strong advocate of energy efficiency and reducing excess energy costs. He approached the committee and argued that it would be very useful to have in the bill the language of this amendment, which says that you will take into account, in making the grants, the extent to which the money would reduce utility costs for residents. This would, of course, have the dual advantage of making it less expensive for these low-income residents and also conserving energy. So it seemed to us an entirely reasonable approach, and I was glad to tell the gentleman from Washington that I agree with him and, in fact, to serve as his designee in offering it. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, as the designee of the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey), I offer an amendment.

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, the gentleman is absolutely right. And that same issue, as he knows, is arising in the context of our work on HOPE VI. We want to do the green building standards. We want to do them in a way that will be sensible and reasonable. Let's be very clear. There aren't enough law enforcement people in the world to make this work if there isn't a willingness on the part of those involved to do it. If people think it is too rigid or inflexible, it's just not going to work as well. I think we have a wide willingness now on the part of the homebuilders and others to be participating in this. And, yes, we will make this very much a collaborative enterprise. Of course if the gentleman's substitute were to pass, it wouldn't be relevant. But in case it didn't, we will work together.

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, for many years I have had the honor of sharing with our colleagues information about a very important event not just in greater Boston, but from a national perspective. It is the annual dinner of ROFEH International--New England Chassidic Center. Under the leadership of Grand Rabbi Levi Y. Horowitz of the New England Chassidic Center, ROFEH International does extraordinarily important work in the medical field. Rabbi Horowitz is himself a distinguished authority on medical ethics, and plays an important role in helping medical professionals in Boston deal with the ethical issues that modern science encounters. Project ROFEH also plays a very important role in helping provide access to the medical care that is available in Boston to people around the world. Annually, under the leadership of Rabbi Horowitz, these organizations have a dinner in which leading citizens who have contributed to the work that they do are honored. Without exception they are men and women of great distinction and generosity. This year the awardees are Dr. Kenneth C. Anderson, who receives the ROFEH International Distinguished Service Award, and Keevin Geller, who receives the Man of the Year Award. Madam Speaker, I was pleased to receive biographies of these two distinguished leaders and I ask that they be printed here along with my congratulations to the people who do the important work of ROFEH International and the New England Chassidic Center, under Rabbi Horowitz's leadership. Kenneth C. Anderson, MD ``ROFEH International Distinguished Service Award'' Dr. Anderson graduated from Johns Hopkins Medical School, trained in internal medicine at John's Hopkins Hospital, and completed hematology, medical oncology, and tumor immunology training at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He is the Kraft Family Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School; and serves as Chief of the Division of Hematologic Neoplasia, Director of the Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center, and Vice Chair of the Joint Program in Transfusion Medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He serves as chair of the NCCN Multiple Myeloma Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee; as a Cancer and Leukemia Group B Principal Investigator; on the Board of Scientific Advisors of the International Myeloma Foundation; on the Board of Directors and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation; as well as on the Board of Directors and Chair of the Leadership Committee of the Multiple Myeloma Research Consortium. He is a Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Research Scientist and has had long term RO-1, PO-I, and SPORE NIH funding. His numerous awards including the 2001 Charles C. Lund Award of the American Red Cross Blood Services, the 2003 Waldenstrom's award for research in plasma cell dyscrasias, the 2004 Johnson & Johnson Focused Giving Award for Setting New Directions in Science and Technology, the 2005 Third Annual International Myeloma Foundation Robert A. Kyle Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 2007 Joseph A. Burchenal Award for Clinical Research from the American Association for Cancer Research. His paradigm for identifying and validating targets in the myeloma cell and its bone marrow milieu has already provided novel therapies, and offers great promise to improve patient outcome in hematologic malignancies and solid tumors as well. Keevin Geller, ROFEH International New England Chassidic Center Man of the Year Award Keevin Geller, has been proud to call the Bostoner Rebbe, his friend for over thirty years. Mr. Geller is the owner of Barney and Carey Lumber Company since 1978. In addition to his lumber business, Keevin is a real estate developer and owner. He was one of the first property owners to convert a Back Bay townhouse into condominiums, and went on to complete over twenty-five such projects there and on Beacon Hill. He built and restored many homes in Milton, also creating that town's first condominium complex in the buildings of a former estate. A serious conservationist, he has specialized in the redevelopment of existing structures, while protecting the surrounding land. He was honored with the Commonwealth Award for land preservation. Keevin was one of the founding members of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. He is a thirty-year member of the Hundred Club, and a life member of many conservation organizations. He is a graduate of Boston University, with a major in Latin. His wife, Cynthia, also a BU alumna, is the granddaughter of the late Max Oransky, one of the Rebbe's father's Chassidim. Cynthia and Keeven reside in Sharon, Massachusetts, where he serves on various town committees.