TRANSCRIPT: Leader Schumer Remarks At Roundtable Kicking Off Push On Housing Affordability; Senate Democrats Tackle Trump’s Historic Housing Costs
Washington, D.C. – Today, at a roundtable launching the Democratic push to lower the cost of housing, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), discussed potential solutions aimed at providing relief to renters and homebuyers. The discussion is part of Senate Democrats’ ongoing efforts to address the affordability crisis, which has been exacerbated by President Trump and Senate Republicans’ disastrous policies. Below are Leader Schumer’s remarks from the event:
Well, thank you, Senator Warren. Let me thank you. She has been such a great leader on this issue. She's sort of the point of the spear on housing, as she is on so many other issues. And the fact that we passed the ROAD [to Housing] Act, let me tell you, this didn't just happen. She worked on this every day and sat down with people on the other side of the aisle who didn't agree with her and said, how can we come to a compromise to get something done? And the ROAD Act passed the Senate. We'll see what happens in the House, but it shows you. The ROAD Act, we would agree, is the beginning of what we need to do on housing. Not the middle, not the end, the beginning. But the fact that it could get done in a bipartisan way should give us all a lot of optimism that we can get some real things done on housing.
Democrats this year, are fighting above every other issue to lower the costs of living that American people pay. The average family—right now, there are families sitting down this week—there'll be tens of millions of families sitting down and saying, “How am I going to pay this bill? Do I have to stop saving for retirement so I can pay for health care? That room on the house we were going to build so mom could move in because she can't stay in the house she's in has gotten too expensive.” The cost of health care, the cost of electricity. Democrats are on our front foot this year fighting on the issue of affordability, of high costs. And that's what the American people, while Donald Trump's off on these military adventures in the rest of the world, the American people are saying, what about us? And he's paying no attention, no attention.
Housing is key. When you own a home, it gives you hope in the future that every month, when you pay that mortgage, you're building equity, you're increasing your own wealth, and you have something for your children if they need it. When you pay rent, the money's gone. So we have to do two things. One, we have to make it easier for people to buy a home, afford a home, afford that down payment. But second, we also have to make sure rents aren't so high because a whole lot of people can't afford the down payment because they're paying so much for rent. And we have ideas on both those issues and many others. This is a very distinguished panel that Elizabeth [Warren] has put together. We're going to have other panels like this on the other issues I mentioned every week, every month, on the issue of cost. But to start off with housing is so appropriate because if your rent is too high, if your mortgage is too high, there are so many other things you can't afford that make life less enjoyable and less livable.
###