this bill addresses that, mr. speaker. this bill actually includes a provision that has fema begin developing a coordinated proactive approach to have we mitigate or reduce vulnerabilities from disasters. my own state of louisiana in the last several years, we've seen extraordinary disasters. whether it's hurricane katrina and rita in 2005, hurricanes gus to have and ike in -- gustav and ike in 2008. we had the oil spill in 2011. in hurricane 2012 we had hurricane isaac. in 2010 -- in 2011 and again this year we saw record high water on the mississippi river system causing flooding. we're going to spend dollars. we got to spend them in the right places. this bill does a number of things that are important. number one, it eliminates bureaucracy and helps to streamline the process of getting dollars on the ground to some of our important impacted areas. we've seen where this bill comes in that actually changes criteria where severely impacted local communities, like in louisiana where we just saw st. john parish, ascension pa

, mr. bill, and he stopped on several occasions to acknowledge his fans.o that's a big change from yesterday. in the last ten seconds, we are expecting a decision on whether this case goes ahead today. the judge can go ahead with the case or not. but we are expecting a decision today. >> john thank you very much. finally at this hour, home depot hiring more than 80,000 workers nationwide for the busy spring season ahead. there are part-time and full-time jobs. all of the hiring coming amid a solid housing market as people look to renovate their homes. and the clock is ticking for a lucky lottery winner in southern california. a winning ticket from august still not claimed. it is worth $62 million. it was brought at a 7-eleven in chatsworth. they have until 5:00 pm to show up, or all of the money goes bye-bye. as we do. check us out 24 hours a day at our website, aljazeera.com. ♪ >>> syrian opposition fighters prepare to defend aleppo as government forces make a break through north of the city. ♪ >>> good to have your company. i'm david foster. you are watc

and mr. bill turned around and acknowledged the fact that he had been supporting him.helle. >> all right. keep us posted john. >>> coming up -- renter's rights, why arkansas residents have very little rights. >>> and another nfl star suffered from the brain disease cte when he died. >> al jazeera america brings you independent reporting without spin. >> not everybody is asking the questions you're asking me today. >> we give you more perspectives >> the separatists took control a few days ago. >> and a global view. >> now everybody in this country can hear them. >> getting the story first-hand. >> they have travelled for weeks, sometimes months. >> what's your message then? >> we need help now. >> you're watching al jazeera america. >> every monday night. >> i lived that character. >> go one on one with america's movers and shakers. >> we will be able to see change. >> gripping... inspiring... entertaining. no topic off limits. >> 'cause i'm like, "dad, there are hookers in this house". >> exclusive conversations you won't find anywhere else. >> these are very vivid, h

and referring to her as mrs. bill clinton is not a problem when mrs. , hillary clinton is on the campaign trail. bill's right there by her side. >> she can be by her side the same way she was by her side and she is her own woman. let's give her some credit. she's running for president. come on. charles: there's speculation that maybe someone already had access. some entity may have already had access to her server. it was a sitting duck up there. >> yeah. charles: and this is what the american public will never buy. no matter what happens, how much they block this, i think in a court of public opinion, she has already lost to a large degree. >> absolutely. she jeopardized our national security. potentially jeopardized the security of navy seals. these are significant charges. and if you look at what she's said so far, she's lying. she has lied through her teeth. said there was no classified information. and now she's blaming in an overclassification problem within the state department. she's the person that could have fixed that. >> if bernie sanders wi

mr. speaker, i would yield two minutes to the gentleman from michigan, again, a co-sponsor of the bill, mr. kildee's bill, mr. moolenaar, for two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: jealt the gentleman is recognized for two minutes -- the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. moolenaar: thank you, mr. speaker. i want to join my michigan colleagues as a co-sponsor of this legislation and thank representative kildee and chairman upton for bringing this legislation forward. our hearts go out to the people of flint. who are enduring so much and persevering during this time. it's heartwarming to see the way people across the country have come together and supported the people of flint. the sad thing is that this situation could have been prevented. and should have been prevented. and the legislation we're discussing today here in the house of representatives is because of failures in local, state and federal government. the fact is that the officials at the e.p.a. knew last april, 10 months ago, that the flint utilities department was not using corrosion controls, putting water safety at r

mr. stivers: it provides for the conversation of 14 amendments offered to h.r. 4700 -- 3700. it provides a motion to recommit for the bill. mr. speaker, i rise today in support of the resolution mr. s rise in support of the rule and the underlying legislation. it is a package of several bipartisan bills that have been voted on by the house financial services committee and received bipartisan support and have passed multiple times since 2006 in both republican and democratic congresses. h.r. 37 cuts down on inefficiency and duplicative regulation. the bill employs a commonsense approach to mitigating the overlapping and redundant procedures that have made rental assistance programs unnecessarily burdensome for some tenants as well as private owners and investors of affordable housing. the portions of h.r. 3700 that are of particularly important to me and to many of the large

the bill lists the 11 areas of training, including ptsd and military sexual trauma. mr. speaker, this bill addresses issues the committee has expressed concerns in the past and pi support its passage. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from louisiana is recognized. mr. abraham: reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california. mr. takano: do you have any further speakers? mr. abraham: i do not. mr. takano: i urge the passage of h.r. 3234 as amended and yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from louisiana. encourage all members to support h.r. 3234 as amended and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill h.r. 3234 as amended. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair 2/3 being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed and without objection, the mot

the governors bill and mr. frasers bill are on a slightly longer track because mr. frasers bill is introduced in regular session and it is just at the point now where it is clearing the first 30 day quite period and not set for committee hearing until sometime in march. at that point if had leadership gives a go ahead. the governors proposal is a budget trader bill and haven't seen a packet like this through a budget before, but there is two ways-we are at a fork in the road, it can go quickly, they can hold a budget subcommittee hearing on the entirety of the concept and move ahead, or they could put it into a more of a retune budget process where pieces are heard in different ujbet subcommittees and comes back together after the may revice so it is hard to see how it will go but we are waiting for senators bells maelts if tee if they fulfill what we are hoping for. that help? >> thank you. i see no questions let's open up for public comment. anyone from the public that would like to speak? mr. plantal. >> bob plantal one of several people here to urge you to ovride

mr bills actually retired the week that i got there. minor actions were limited. i spent most of my time working on a speed camera programme. the red light programme was in place for about 10 years before i got there. it was successful in reducing crashes, and i understand the controversy - obviously there are bad actors in the private and public sector. that's unfortunate. it seems to happen even more in chicago. but the bottom line is the cameras work, reducing face atties and crashes. rear end crashes do not generally result in fatalties. it's a fact. so, you know i say they work. i'd like to see more across the country. like we have in washington d.c. . >> according to several sources, while you were the commissioner, the majority of intersections with red light cameras had yellow light timings of under 3 seconds, below the federal, state and your own city's dit guidelines, what do you know about that? >> i honestly don't know anything about that. i heard something about it after a left. you know, i was the commissioner of the department. i didn't really handl

the governors bill and mr. frasers bill are on a slightly longer track because mr. frasers bill is introduced in regular session and it is just at the point now where it is clearing the first 30 day quite period and not set for committee hearing until sometime in march. at that point if had leadership gives a go ahead. the governors proposal is a budget trader bill and haven't seen a packet like this through a budget before, but there is two ways-we are at a fork in the road, it can go quickly, they can hold a budget subcommittee hearing on the entirety of the concept and move ahead, or they could put it into a more of a retune budget process where pieces are heard in different ujbet subcommittees and comes back together after the may revice so it is hard to see how it will go but we are waiting for senators bells maelts if tee if they fulfill what we are hoping for. that help? >> thank you. i see no questions let's open up for public comment. anyone from the public that would like to speak? mr. plantal. >> bob plantal one of several people here to urge you to ovride

mr. speaker, i would yield two minutes to the gentleman from michigan, again, a co-sponsor of the bill, mr. kildee's bill, mr. moolenaar, for two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: jealt the gentleman is recognized for two minutes -- the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. moolenaar: thank you, mr. speaker. i want to join my michigan colleagues as a co-sponsor of this legislation and thank representative kildee and chairman upton for bringing this legislation forward. our hearts go out to the people of flint. who are enduring so much and persevering during this time. it's heartwarming to see the way people across the country have come together and supported the people of flint. the sad thing is that this situation could have been prevented. and should have been prevented. and the legislation we're discussing today here in the house of representatives is because of failures in local, state and federal government. the fact is that the officials at the e.p.a. knew last april, 10 months ago, that the flint utilities department was not using corrosion controls, putting water safety at r

. >> we talked to a home who's seen mr. bill trump from 1400 to went $200 a month. with that increase blue cross money. >> reporter: they've been trying to get their health coverage straightened out when egoes on the website, it sees. none of them right. >> and the third, covers two of my children and myself and my husband, but it lists our 20- year-old son as the subscriber. our7-year-old daughter as his spouse. my husband and high self as dependents. >> reporter: she's among thousand who had issues like this. it's not the only concern. the cost is skyrocketting fast. $800 mr. a month compared to just three years ago. >> it's obscene and i just don't see how the system can about it. >> reporter: speak of affordable executives are now considering getting out of the affordable care act marketplace. they've been losing monaural -- money on those plans. this man has been in the insurance business for decades. >> they're getting the good, bad, and ugly. >> reporter: he says part other problem is that the act did not address underlying costs u health care such as medicat

mr. mcclintock had a bill that would have done just that. well, financial services, the committee on which i serve, did an investigation and we found that though they said mr. mcclintock's bill couldn't be taken seriously, they actually had a plan to do just what mr. mcclintock had recommended, which is if the debt limit is reached, prioritize payments. they weren't being honest with the american people. because what they wanted to do was use the argument of chaos to put pressure on republicans to cave and not demand that we reform the way that we spend. so our amendment here today is very simple. all we say is, let's make sure that treasury comes clean and tell it's the american people -- tells the american people whether it can pay principal and interest before other obligations so america does not default on its debt. very simple. no one here wants to hit the debt limit. no one wants us to be the next greece or puerto rico. but that's going to take work together to make sure we have budgets that balance at some point in the future. with th

mr. vargas for their bipartisan work on this bill. and i'll go off script here and say thank you very much to mr. poliquin who has been an active, very active member on this committee from the very beginning and very active in making sure this legislation comes to the floor today. i thank the gentleman. this bill, as i said before, came out of the committee in much part to his work in an overwhelming bipartisan vote. i believe it was 55-1. so we have that one to work on for your next piece of legislation coming out of committee. you see, mr. speaker, congress created the s.e.c. government business forum on small business capital formation to do what, to provide a platform to identify unnecessary impediments to small businesses providing capital formation and find ways to eliminate or get rid of them, reduce them. so each forum seeks to develop recommendations for government and private action to improve and provide the environment for small businesses capital formation. thereby doing providing small business opportunity to do what, to

bill with congresswoman maloney. i also want to thank my good friends, mr. poliquin, mr. pearce, the chairman and others who helped us in working on this bill. i want to thank you for this support. it's really just commons. u.s. municipal bonds are among the safest investments in the entire world. according to municipal market an litics, over the last five years, a period, by the way, which states and local governments struggled to recover from the recession, high-quality state and local government obligation defaults 4/1000%. it was 4/1000% during the recession. and public entities depend on this financing too. state and local governments, school corporations and public utility companies across the u.s. sell municipal bonds to finance the infrastructure and ervices that we all depend on. it's low interest municipal bonds that finance new schools, hospitals, bridges and roads and pay for the repair of outdated and failing infrastructure. the needs are great. in fact, according to the society of civil engineers, state and local governments to $3.6 trillion with a t meet the

mr. billings, does your website, cyberloves.net, sell the story of janet? yes. and on a tanner's scale, she scores pretty low. tanner's scale? i don't know what that is. it's a body development chart-- now, janet is a two. some girls develop slowly. stabler: don't hand me that crap. my ten-year- old daughter looks more mature than that. i told you, we have a company rule-- no underage models. why would i risk my business? 'cause happy pedophiles spend moreoney? ( sighing ) you ever heard of virtual pornography? that girl is 18-- legal age. we only help her look younger. and how's that? with youth enhancement software. but the people that get off on this don't think she's 18. but she is, and looking at that is not a crime. thousands of men and women enjoy the services of exel entertainment. virtual pornography is actually therapeutic. it provides for men a cathartic release, and it still protects the real kids. not all of them. somebody went out and copied your images, and a real nine-year-old child wound up dead. then... i'm truly sorry,

bill? mr. scalise: no, the bill just came out of committee. obviously there were a lot of disagreements within committee that chairman schuster worked through. it's a complicated bill. it's a bill that ultimately, when they passed it, there were a lot of amendments even on the last day. and i think chairman shuster continues to have conversations with people that really do understand that the f.a.a. needs reforms. the f.a.a. does have its authorization expiring, so there's a timeline. and he's working through all of those different -- billy: so no decision -- no definite decision has been made? mr. scalise: no. there's still, again, chairman shuster's still meeting with a lot of people to work through all of the different issues that are involved. and there are many. billy: we're going to open it up for questions in a few minutes. really more general, you've been the number three man for mr. boehner and now you're the number three man for mr. ryan. which is the better boss? [laughter] mr. scalise: that's not a -- billy: i think you probably le

. >> welcome back mr. bill murray. >> reporter: bill murray is a fan favorite.ut he is playing hurt today with a hand injury. >> well, it's an inherited thing. contract are you. the vikings gave it to the irish. and northern and european people get it. it basically closes up your hand so your fingers pull over and close over. >> you have to be the longest tenured celebrity in this event. why do you keep getting invited back? >> because i'm such a cool guy. >> besides that. >> i don't know why. i don't question it. >> reporter: larry the cabley known for wearing camouflage told me it pays off on the golf course. >> the cool thing about full camo is when i shank one, when nobody's looking, i sneak in the woods, i kick it out. nobody knows what's going on. >> reporter: he also has issues playing in front of all of the cameras. >> the camera puts 10 strokes on you. you know? so there you go. what are you going to do? this is a five-cram shoot. >> reporter: the level of golf did not matter, and bill murray never gets tired of this event. >> there's going to be some b

scholarships for local students. marshall are the tampa bay rays and her with more want to welcome mr. bill walsh is a vice president of strategy and develop met we also want to welcome the chairman of the parade. thank you for coming. you said earlier this is a great fit for the race and crew >> thank you for having us. our mission at the raise is to have the committed to the magic of baseball. most people are familiar with those magical moments it happened on the field. there are many years a lot of many of happens off the field as well. we're excited about this partnership in particular talk about our partnership with big brothers and big sisters >> you have them on the float with you. and the players. >> people from the raise organization have a special connection with big brothers big sisters. what is that? >> our partnership has going on 10 years now. employees currently community. it's per slice of the near and dear to my heart. i've been a big for four years. they are timid this forward to the opportunity to help tell their story. >> even working extra hard to bring the focus back t

(cheers and applause) i am so excited that i will be host of "the o'reilly factor," mr. bill o'reilly, ladies and gentlemen! (cheers and applause) that's going to be fun. so happy bill's here. bill and sri a lot in we're both irish-american, we both wear suits, and i think that's it. (laughter) (applause) actor, eddie george. (cheers and applause) four-timeer. but... if he can act like he's hurt, he might even have a second career as a soccer player. (applause) yan lewis. (cheers and applause)ir song coincidence -- that's also the name of my yacht. (applause)ht there is jon batiste and "stay human". greet them, one and all! they're due to do the thing they do, but before they do, one more researchers have developed an it, it's also an i.q. test for you. (laughter) (applause) >> announcer:hen welcomes bill o'reilly! n.f.l. and now broadwaye george! and a musical performance by macklemore and ryan lewis! jon batiste and "stay human"! it's time for "the late show" with stephen colbert! (cheers and applause) tephen: welcome back, (cheers and applause)ers and applause) game ball.

mr. speaker, i rise today in support of s. 1580, the competitive service act of 2015, introduced by senator john tester of montana. this bill would allow federal agencies to share their lists of best qualified candidates with other agencies needing to hire for similar positions. mr. speaker, many applicants are reluctant to apply for jobs with the federal government, due to the length of time it takes for some agencies to fill job announcements. this bill will expedite the federal hiring process by allowing agencies to share their assessment of job applicants for competitive service positions. s. 1580 allows an agency to hire from another agency's certified list of eligible candidates as long as the original job announcement provided notice that the list of eligible candidates may be used by another agency and that the position is in the same occupational category and that the position is at a similar grade level. however, before an agency can hire from another agency's certified list of eligible candidates, that agency must provide notice of the available position to its internal employees, give up to 10 business days for

also, recently passing mr. bill del monty, the last known earthquake survivor. he was 3 months old when this earthquake occurred. he passed away at 109 years of age. just 10 days shy of his birthday. he was a friend of the department. we loved seeing him the morning of the commemoration of the 1904 earthquake and fire. this meeting is now adjourned. [ meeting is adjourned ] >>

the bill aims to honor mr. xiaobo, an activist imprisoned by china's communist government while calling for political freedom. while the republican led house of representatives is likely to support the address change campaign, president obama is should congress change the address of china's embassy? eleanor? eleanor: no. the republicans have run this up the flag pole once before. a couple of years ago and the chinese said, if we changed the street here, they would change the street by the american and have come up with good ideas. edward snowden street, 911 street. i think diplomacy is -- better things to do than this. pat: this shows you the lack of seriousness in the congress of the united states, in particular the republican party who are free traders. last year they gave the chinese communists $365 billion trade surplus, $4 trillion in the last 20 years which the chinese have used to build up their military, their navy, become a mighty and these guys are interested in changing names on reno road in washingt

bill? mr. scalise: no, the bill just came out of committee.usly there were a lot of disagreements within committee cha chairman shuster worked through. it's a complicated bill. it's a bill that ultimately, when they passed it, there were a lot of amendments even on the last day. and i think chairman shuster continues to have conversations with people that really do understand that the f.a.a. needs reforms, the f.a.a. does have its authorization expiring, so there's a timeline. and he's working through all of those different -- >> so no decision -- no definite decision has been made? mr. scalise: no. there's still, again, chairman shuster's still meeting with a lot of people to work through all of the different issues that are involved. and there are many. >> we're going to open it up for questions in a few minutes. really more general, you've been the number three man for mr. boehner and now you're the number three man for mr. ryan. which is the better boss? [laughter] mr. scalise: that's not a -- >> i think you probably lean one way. because

mr. conyers: somehow the ntleman from illinois' misunderstood what i said. this bill makes it too difficult to remand cases back to state courts to the point where federalism concerns are raised and plaintiffs are frequently harmed. and now i thank the gentleman for yielding. mr. cohen: thank you, mr. conyers and mr. speaker and future governor or senator of louisiana. this bill which has come before our committee is one that the president has said he will veto because the president says that it is a problem solution -- solution looking for a problem or something to thanking effect. this bill will make it more difficult for plaintiffs, people who have been harmed, to get relief because their cases in state court can more easily be removed to federal court. the gentleman from virginia is xactly right, that they have been permitted and you can move a case to federal court if you can show that the defendant -- the plaintiff in the state court is not a proper plaintiff. and so you can show there is diversity of citizenship but not omplete diversity. the problem is, this h

mr. bill walsh is the senior vice president of strategy and development and luis campanello, chirm chairman of the parade. thank you for coming. you have a special guest coming? >> first, thank you for having us on the program and thank you so much to the crew of santiago. our mission to enier skies the baseball. and people are familiar with magic on the field but there's a lot of magic off the field as partnerships. we're excited about the particular, -- opportunity to talk about in particular the big brothers and big sisters. >> they will be on the float with you along with the players. special connection with big brothers big sisters. what is it exactly? >> we have -- our partnership with big brothers big sisters is going on 10 years now and we currently volunteering as bigs in the community, personal it's something near and dear to my years. they are a tremendous organization. >> you have been working extra hard to bring the focus back to community and the parade. what are the specifics th

bill. it's been a long time coming. mr. speaker, sadly, the korean war is often referred to as the forgotten war, and yet the magnitude of sacrifice made by americans during this conflict was enormous. more than 36,000 americans gave their lives. my fellow korean war veterans and i believe that magnitude of this enormous sacrifice is not yet fully conveyed by the memorial in washington, d.c. that's where this bill, h.r. 1475, the korean war veterans memorial wall of remembrance act, comes to play. this bill which already has the support of over 300 of my colleagues would allow for the creation of a wall of remembrance at the site of the korean war veterans memorial on the national mall. similar to the vietnam veterans memorial wall, the korean war veterans wall of remembrance would eternally honor the brave americans who gave their lyes in defense of freedom during the korean war. it would list their names as a visual record of their sacrifice. furthermore, the wall would also list the total numbers of all of america's woun

mr. billings was at the position of the left front truck at the maximum engagement. was at a final rest. >> reporter: that's where died. another cyclist, 52-year-old james lambert was struck and died a few days later. they were traveling eastbound at snowville road at dewey with the sun behind them. the truck tim wolf was driving was traveling into the sun on snowville and made a left on dewey in front of the bikes causing the deadly chain-reaction crash. >> do you have a opinion to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty that the cyclists were traveling at a speed reasonable for conditions present at the to the debilitating sun glare known to be directly behind them. >> 35mile-an-hour or around 35mile-an-hour based on the elements of your hypothetical and in particular approaching an intersection with the crest of the hill i think that's too fast for conditions given all the elements of your hypothetical. >> reporter: at that point this family member of one of those killed quickly jumped up and ran out of the courtroom in tears visibly upset. >> you have bicycles leaving visible ski

and applause) i am so excited that i will be sitting down with the host of "the o'reilly factor," mr. bill o'reilly, ladies and gentlemen! (cheers and applause) that's going to be fun. so happy bill's here. bill and sri a lot in common. we're both irish-american, we both wear suits, and i think that's it. (laughter) (applause) then i'll sit down with heisman trophy winner turned broadway (cheers and applause) four-time pro-bowler. but... if he can act like he's hurt, he might even have a second career as a soccer player. (applause) and we'll have a performance by hip-hop duo macklemore & ryan lewis. (cheers and applause) they're performing their song "white privilege 2." what a coincidence -- that's also the name of my yacht. (applause) oh, that sound right there is jon batiste and "stay human". greet them, one and all! (cheers and applause) they're due to do the thing they do, but before they do, one more thing: researchers have developed an i.q. test for dogs. you. (laughter) (applause) >> announcer: tonight, stephen welcomes bill o'reilly! n.f.l. and now broadway star eddie george! and

the governors bill and mr. frasers bill are on a slightly longer track because mr. frasers bill is introduced in regular session and it is just at the point now where it is clearing the first 30 day quite period and not set for committee hearing until sometime in march. at that point if had leadership gives a go ahead. the governors proposal is a budget trader bill and haven't seen a packet like this through a budget before, but there is two ways-we are at a fork in the road, it can go quickly, they can hold a budget subcommittee hearing on the entirety of the concept and move ahead, or they could put it into a more of a retune budget process where pieces are heard in different ujbet subcommittees and comes back together after the may revice so it is hard to see how it will go but we are waiting for senators bells maelts if tee if they fulfill what we are hoping for. that help? >> thank you. i see no questions let's open up for public comment. anyone from the public that would like to speak? mr. plantal. >> bob plantal one of several people here to urge you to ovride

also, recently passing mr. bill del monty, the last known earthquake suor

mr. house: other side has helped you to pass these bills in the past. is it likely that you will have to rely on the other side to pass something this year, do you think? rep. scalise: that will ultimately be up to our members. omnibuswant to avoid an at the end of this year, this is the best way to do it, to start with the budget process that really opens the door for your appropriations bills to move and have been moved to the house in the senate to the president's desk. if you do that, you don't have this looming deadline of the and of the year that results in an on the this or cr, which is far less than what you would want to have as an ideal. does not allow you to have policy limitations on the executive overreach. some like you are saying the looming sense of dread and pessimism over the process is too early? rep. scalise: way too early. i'm not pessimistic. these are the conversations we ought to be having. we really care about the policy. the policy matters to the direction of the country. these kindshaving of passionate conversations within the

mr. chairman, i yield one minute to the gentleman. the chair: the gentleman is ecognized. >> i rise in support of this bill. mr. pittinger: this bipartisan legislation provides commonsense efforts for streamlining and reducing regulatory burdens for organizations working with h.u.d. this bill looks to correct many problems within our housing system while simplifying the certification process while providing authority for -- to approve rirle -- improve rirle housing service loans. mr. chairman, condominiums are often the first step on the housing ladder for the first time homeowners. they also can be the most affordable and desirable option for single people, young families, and those looking to downsize. unfortunately, current f.h.a. regulations prevent buyers from purchasing condos. h.r. 3700 eases restrictions, allowing more opportunity for home ownership. is bill reins in duplicative and overburdensome regulations which not only create a slower process but increase government work load for all without affecting any changes to direct spending. mr. chairman, housing assistance should be solely for those who nee