Source: United States Senator for Florida Marco Rubio
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) held a press conference on Capitol Hill supporting law enforcement and highlighting his bipartisan Homes for Every Local Provider, Educator, and Responder (HELPER) Act. The HELPER Act would provide a one-time use home loan program to law enforcement officers, firefighters, medical first responders, and teachers.
A video of the press conference can be found here and a transcript of his remarks is below:
We’ve been celebrating National Police Week across America and, obviously, celebrating the heroism of our men and women in law enforcement. They are heroes, not just this one week a year, but every single day.
At the same time…, [we recognize that] teachers are also extraordinary heroes that are impacting communities and lives every single day for our young people. They’re also heroes all the time.
Unfortunately, although they provide a tremendous service to our communities, law enforcement, first responders, and teachers oftentimes…can’t afford to live in the communities that they serve. One of the reasons why is housing costs.
There’s a lot of reasons why housing costs are high and unaffordable. We’re trying to address one of them through these changes in the law that provide a new opportunity for financing, specifically for men and women who are first responders, [who are] in law enforcement, firefighters, police officers, and teachers, who we think are so essential. [They are essential] not just for our country, but essential enough to live affordably in the very communities that they serve.
I’m very grateful for the overwhelming bipartisan support that this bill enjoys, and I am hopeful that we can convert it into law.… I’m grateful for all the groups that are here to support us today as well. We thank them for what they and their members do for us every single day. This is the least that we can do, and I’m hopeful that we can get this done.