00:04Senator Gallego.
00:06All right, thank you and gracias to Chairman Scott.
00:09I recommend Member Warren for all the work to make this possible.
00:12Also, of course, staff, committee staff, my staff, for everything they did on this.
00:16And, you know, for my first go around, this feels great.
00:19And much like the chairman, I grew up not in a great housing situation.
00:22You know, my first bed was my college dorm room bed in about eight years.
00:27And prior to actually leaving for college, I actually helped my mom get her first home in quite a while.
00:33And it was an FHA loan.
00:34And she would never have gotten any loan if it wasn't for an FHA loan.
00:39And it was a starter home.
00:40It was a small, small place, but it was a place that I knew my sisters would be safe at while I was at college.
00:45You know, the fact is, though, right now, I'm talking to, you know, men and women, you know, that are just about, you know, I'm 45, you know, 10 years younger than me.
00:56They feel disillusioned.
00:57They feel they can't buy a home.
00:59They feel that they're losing any opportunity and really starting that first rung of generational wealth.
01:04You know, and this is Arizona, where it used to be a very affordable place.
01:08I mean, we used to have people move to Arizona because it was affordable.
01:11And now even Arizona is not affordable.
01:13And people are finding that no matter where they go, it's unaffordable.
01:18And it really is stopping, you know, Americans from achieving that first American dream.
01:23And psychologically, you know, it's hard.
01:26These kids are hurting.
01:27And kids, I'm sorry, these adults are hurting because, you know, their parents were able to get a home, but they can't.
01:31And in some regards, they think it's their fault.
01:33And in reality, it's because we, you know, the market has been so distorted through a lot of, for a lot of reasons.
01:39Some of it is over-regulation on our part.
01:41Some of it is, you know, the market in general.
01:44Some of it is zoning, but at least we in Congress have decided to step up and do something in a bipartisan manner,
01:51because we heard that, especially in this last election.
01:54And so I'm very proud to support this bill, and especially one of the projects we just talked about,
02:00which doesn't seem like much, but being able to even get an affordable apartment matters.
02:06But those that build affordable apartments need to be able to borrow the money to do that.
02:10So the changing the limits sounds small, but it really, really does matter.
02:14And it will hopefully bring more supply to the market, bring more supply to the market the fastest possible,
02:19then it actually brings down rents.
02:20And we have seen that in places happening across the country for those places that do that.
02:24So I'm very proud of the bills that I have put in there.
02:28They're going to be focusing on streamlining permitting, improving coordination between federal agencies,
02:33just fixing outdated language.
02:35And, you know, I'm glad we're doing this.
02:37And I think the country is going to be very happy we did it.
02:41So thank you, Mr. Chairman.
02:42Thank you, record member.
02:43Thank you, sir.
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