Rick Lazio on Welfare & Poverty
Advocate for public housing in Congress
LAZIO [to Clinton]: In the House, I’ve been very active on housing issues, on helping the homeless, helping poor people with public housing. Do New Yorkers care about the homeless? I believe they do. The most sweeping reform in public-housing history was
authored by me and signed into law. CLINTON: He fought to weaken the safety standards for manufactured housing and in-home building.
LAZIO: There’s been nobody else in the House who’s stood up for poor people and to provide them with good- quality
housing. I’ve been there for the homeless, I’ve been there to provide housing for people with AIDS. I’ve been there for people who rely on Section 8. I’m boosting homeownership for our young families.
CLINTON: In fact, I’ll be meeting with a group of
public-housing tenants this evening because what their memory of that fight was, Mr. Lazio, is that you were trying to remove the caps from the limits that would in some way prohibit a lot of people from being able to have the public housing.
Source: NY Senate debate on NBC
Oct 28, 2000
Congressional fight against FHA was supported by HUD
CLINTON [to Lazio]: Not only is there a problem with the home builders and the safety standards, but the FHA was trying to increase the limits that would enable a person who wanted to be a homeowner to be able to borrow at low
interest. And my opponent fought that. He did not want those limits raised and around the time of that fight he received significant contributions from the mortgage banking industry. LAZIO: Do you understand that the standards that
you’re talking about were endorsed by the administration’s Department of Housing and Urban Development? Do you understand that?
CLINTON: Do you understand that the standards I’m talking about, that you were trying to
weaken, were said by the AARP that they would have put people in danger?
Source: (X-ref Hillary) NY Senate debate on NBC
Oct 28, 2000
Allow food stamps for legal immigrants
On Food stamps. Lazio voted to restore food stamps to legal immigrants, a benefit that had been denied by the 1996 welfare bill.
Source: David Rosenbaum, New York Times
Jun 4, 2000
Public housing: More work & service; less concentrated poor
His most consequential accomplishment [was] the 1998 law that overhauls the nation’s public housing system. The law is supposed to increase the proportion of public housing residents who work and require many of them to perform community service. It
also encourages public housing authorities to reduce the concentration of very poor tenants in buildings, a situation Lazio believes contributes to crime. The bill eventually passed the House by an almost unanimous vote.
Source: David Rosenbaum, New York Times
Jun 4, 2000
Promote responsible fatherhood via faith-based institutions
Voting record on faith-based institutions:- Voted YES to establish a program that would promote more responsible fatherhood via grants to state agencies and nonprofit groups, including faith-based institutions. (HR.3073, 11/10/99)
- Voted to ALLOW
federal funds for a program to promote responsible fatherhood from going directly to churches, synagogues and other groups that are “pervasively sectarian.” (HR.3073, 11/10/99)
Source: Congressional voting record in Vote-Smart.org
Nov 10, 1999
Tax incentives & vouchers to reduce homelessness
Lazio supports the following principles regarding homelessness & housing:- Provide tax incentives for companies to hire and train homeless people who want to work.
- Increase funding of homeless shelters and low income housing projects.
- Increase funds for housing assistance for welfare recipients who need housing to get or keep a job.
- Provide homeless families with apartment vouchers they can use to supplement the cost of an apartment.
Source: National Political Awareness Test 1998 (vote-smart.org)
Jul 2, 1998
Continue welfare-to-work & block grants
Lazio supports the following principles regarding welfare & poverty:- Continue to give states & local governments responsibility for welfare programs through block grants
- Maintain current welfare-to-work requirements in order for states
to qualify for block grants
- Convert government-funded low-income housing projects into private housing, managed & owned by the residents
- Require that unwed teenage mothers live with a parent or guardian and attend school to receive benefits.
Source: National Political Awareness Test 1998 (vote-smart.org)
Jul 2, 1998
Voted YES on responsible fatherhood via faith-based organizations.
Vote to establish a program that would promote more responsible fatherhood by creating educational, economic and employment opportunities and give grants to state agencies and nonprofit groups, including faith-based institutions.
Reference: Bill sponsored by Johnson, R-CT.;
Bill HR 3073
; vote number 1999-586
on Nov 10, 1999
Limit welfare to 2 years & cut welfare spending.
Lazio signed the Contract with America:
[As part of the Contract with America, within 100 days we pledge to bring to the House Floor the following bill]:
The Personal Responsibility Act:
Discourage illegitimacy and teen pregnancy by prohibiting welfare to minor mothers and denying increased AFDC for additional children while on welfare, cut spending for welfare programs, and enact a tough two-years-and-out provision with work requirements to promote individual responsibility.
Source: Contract with America 93-CWA5 on Sep 27, 1994