again, i'd like to thank mr. duffy and mr. heck for their staff and -- and their staff for working with me and my staff to improve the bill and with that i will reserve the balance of my time. . the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman reserves the balance of her time. the gentleman from michigan is recognized. mr. huizenga: at this time i would like to recognize my friend and colleague and leader of this effort, mr. duffy from wisconsin, for such time as he may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized. mr. duffy: thank you, mr. speaker. i want to thank the gentleman from michigan and also a very good friend of mine more yield gs -- for yielding. 4537. in support of h.r. i first want to start with thanking the gentleman from washington, mr. heck, for his countless hours and effort that he put in, in a bipartisan effort, crafting this bill that would allow us to get an incredibly wonderful bipartisan vote. on top of that, we have some jurisdictional issues so we had two chairmen from texas, w

mr. duffy? >> good evening, commissioners. joe duffy, d.b.i. at the last hearing, i was asked to give an opinion on the work at 4500 third street. that -- i didn't have that -- all of they see documents with me, which is why we continue it had in a way as well. so i'll just readout the application number, and the permit, as you heard, was for the conversion of a liquor store to youth learning center and other various aspects of work. the value of the work is $350,000. the application is a form 8. it means it's an over the counter approval. it's currently in file status. it's -- it's been -- it's been through building plan check, mechanical plan check, intake, d.p.w. have looked at it. it still needs to go to planning, and it needs to go to the mayor's office of disability. now, the permit application and the plans are in the possession of the permit applicant. they haven't done much since january 2018, but i wouldn't anticipate that they are going to do this work and get the permit. the reason we couldn't review the plans is we don't have them

. >> i think mr. duffy can answer those questions. thank you. >> thank you. mr. duffy? we'll now hear from the department of building inspection. >> before we start, we did miss you during last week's hearing. >> so i heard. >> yeah. >> joe duffy. d.b.i. i'll be here in august. the soft story retrofit -- >> well, i was just wondering if that next upgrade triggered the soft story. i would imagine if they did the next improvement, it would trigger it, correct? >> correct, but it looks like it's not part of the soft story, i don't think. >> thank you. >> thank you. is there any public comment on this item? okay. please, both of you, if you can come up against the wall, so we can move it along. please approach the microphone and identify yourselves. >> hello. my name is ishoka. i live about two blocks away from this unit, and i just wanted to voice my support of this project. so i've lived in nob hill. it's a very desirable neighborhood and you can easily walk to stores and offices to work. if you want to live in nob hill, people already living in nob find it extremely expen

i appreciate the ranking member, i appreciate the chair, mr. duffy, mr. royce, there is a path forward. this bill is not the path forward. i don't want it to lapse, i don't want disruption. but it's hard for me to sit here and vote yes for something that doesn't do the minimum. we don't do anybody any favors along this path. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. this gentlelady from california reserves. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. hensarling: i'm pleased to yield one minute to the gentleman from missouri, the chairman of the financial institutions and consumer credit subcommittee, mr. luetkemeyer. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. r. luetkemeyer: the national flood insurance program in desperate need for reform. the current construct in nfip is left unwell. the program provides antiquated policies and provides insufficient coverage. fema holds a monopoly on the flood insurance space leaving people with no freedom to choose the policy best for them. last year we came together as a body

we don't have mr. duffy here. we'll just move onto item number eight as a housekeeping item. this is appeal 18-051, schiff technologies versus the zoning administrator, subject address is 2336 market street, protesting the issuance on march 28, 2018 of a notice of violation and penalty decision. alleging violation of planning code section 764 for the unauthorized operation of a general store at the subject properties. the parties are requesting a continuance to august 8. [inaudible] >> clerk: you will have an opportunity. first public comment will be open. >> so moved. >> clerk: okay. we have a motion from president fung to continue that to august 8. is there any public comment on that motion? if you can identify yourself for the record, please. >> david troop from the duboce triangle neighborhood association. this is the second continuance on this item. this is a situation where the appellant is illegally using retail space as office space because it's cheaper than renting office space, and they're just dragging this out as long as possible. i've come tonight. we have other

the owner of the property has actually pub submitted and mr. duffy has reviewed the plans and we are okay with that. >> i have seen your names on so many permits so glad to connect a face with a name. welcome. >> thank you. >> there were questions asked last time what would it take to bring the plans up to the level that they could be accepted by the building department. one question related to structural openings. what was the result of that. >> the owner provided a sheet for the structurals and it is a field condition review and it is on the the new scope of work, so it's submitted and approved by inspector duffy. >> was the window pattern changed? >> give me one second. i don't believe it changed. >> no additional structure was required? >> no it going to be a condition where he's going to have to hope up some areas to verify the conditions and that is where we will start writing connection notices. >> my question related to the whether the percentage of opening in the wall based upon fire codes are conformed to? >> i believe so, and there is a re

. >> mr. duffy wanted us to revoke the permit and have them resubmit in a proper form that it would then be acceptable based upon the information that the building department would have liked to see. we added additional layers of questions related to how does it relate to the code beside the fact that if one was to try to build it anew, one wouldn't be allowed to do that unless one got an exception or equivalency from the city. >> suggesting an option would be to revoke the permit. >> i think we put the onus on the building department because they would rather that we revoked it last time and see something afresh. i was pushing him to not do that so we can consolidate this process without having to go through multiple player layers of review, multiple appeals, and at least provide some resolution whether anybody would have been happy with that was another issue, but it appears that we may have to continue it again. we can review the drawings to allow them to both be permit holder and the appellant a

mr. duffy for one and a half minutes. >> thank you. we don't take responsibility for our own actions. we should blame somebody else for our poor behavior in our incitement of violence. mr. secretary, welcome. thank you for coming to wisconsin and participating in our homelessness summit. coming to wisconsin in january is not a time people chooses to come and see us but we had 4 been people who came to speak. i want to talk but things we have been working on in the housing and m-ens subcommittee with your partnership, focusing on homelessness and low human being -- low-income housing it's fascinating things we can do together on a bipartisan level. we have voted bills into the housing choice voucher act with unanimous votes, bipartisanship can happen when we work together and with your participation. we do do great things when everybody work together, including working with hud. and again i'm grateful for your participation. i think it's wonderful when our aim is working on programs that lift pe

mr. duffy, you know kamala harris. what about her versus barack obama?re they of the same epic starlike quality for the democrats? >> well, of the fact that saying this because their ethnicity is similar in terms of being biracial, they are obviously both of the democratic party. they are very strong candidates that they come from different beginnings and different origin origins. kamala's background was steeped in local politics first, then the district attorney's office and a large county in californi california. and then became the state attorney general before becoming a senator. barack obama's background was much more grassroots, working with organizations before he came onto the political stage gained traction as a senator. i think in any sense, we want a candidate who resonates with the voters, someone who can connect and has a strong background in policy, lawmaking and understanding how to work across the table in different circles. >> laura: whoa, whoa, whoa, austin. you lost me at work across the table. you are doing really well until you got t

mr. duffy: thank you, mr. speaker. i want to thank the chairman for his great bipartisan work on this package and s. 488 as well as the ranking member, ms. waters, for her bipartisanship. this is a package that takes the finer work, not just over the last two year bus work over the last four to six years of chairman hensarling's leadership, puts them together where we've had democrat, republican, house, senate, agreement on into a package that can hopefully make our markets and our economy work better. i want to thank the chairman for including the ranking member -- chairman and the ranking member for including in this package the international insurance standards bill a bill that was on the floor last week. it passed with a unanimous vote which was fantastic and what we're trying to do is make sure that we maintain in international agreements our state-based model of insurance, that that doesn't get undermined. if we're going to undermine state-based insurance it should come to this institution. i thank both parties a

mr. duffy and i both agree and everyone of our panelist yesterday agree raise the question, you know, can we -- can we eliminate that problem? everybody says yes. and so i said is it realistic for us to declare war and say by the year whatever, we are going to eliminate lead-based paint as a problem in the united states of america. now, not all of it is in public housing. so we're talking about people living in houses that are not public housing and completely unaware of the dangers of lead-based paint. but i know the damage it can do to -- i don't know as well as you. this is your area. but is it realistic, can you accept that the challenge of meeting with this multi-agency group and saying, look, we can solve this problem? and let's all get together, declare war. the taxpayers would love it if we could end a problem and not have to revisit it again. >> i agree with you very much. i would very much love to eliminate that problem. we're making very good progress. the latest cdc survey in terms

chair now recognizes the gentleman from wisconsin, mr. duffy, chairman of our housing and insurance subcommittee. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, mr. powell. i'm up here on the back row. you probably can't find me. some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have discussed harmful economic policies. some in their opening statements specifically. so, if you look at the harmful economic policies that have taken hold over the last, you know, year and a half, so president trump has worked hard to stream line and reduce regulation. we had an historic tax cut. we've tried to rebuild our military. we pushed for american energy independence. if you take together, i would quote, harmful economic policies, what has that done for the african-american unemployment rate in america? >> as i mentioned -- >> has it gone up? >> it's gone down significantly. >> say that one more time. what's happened to african-american unemployment? >> it's come down quite a bit. >> it's come down quite a bit. how about the hispanic unemployment rate, has that g

and voted to pass the chairman duffy's international insurance standards act on tuesday to protect our companies at home from being harmed by european centric regulation. mr. secretary, would you agree the u.s. system of state based insurance regulations works well? and it is well-capitalized and solvent for the most part and that it is important for the treasury secretary to defend the system from the intrusion from both federal and foreign regulations? >> i do. >> at risk of sounding like my high school in which teacher would you care to elaborate. do you care to share more on that? >> in general, we very much support the state-based system. it works. it has worked well. there are certain issues that again, do require some federal intervention and oversight but this is a system that works. it is not broken and we do not need to change it. we need to make sure that u.s. companies that do international business and operate appropriately and that is the reason to participate in the international forums. but we are not looking to change the system. >> very good, thank you.just to point out for many of the committee one of the recently passed this is because