Friends in High Places

In today’s challenging economic times, we’ve found out who our true friends are in Washington. Fortunately for our businesses and the American people, we have a lot of them—on Capitol Hill, at the White House, and in other high places.

Over the course of the past several months, our true friends moved with speed and determination to hammer out a plan that would limit foreclosures among subprime borrowers who were unprepared for hefty increases in their monthly payments when their loans were reset at a higher interest rate. Our friends in Washington moved to reduce interest rates and restore confidence in the financial markets. As economic conditions started to unravel, they stepped in with emergency measures designed to stabilize housing and they sat down to consider ­longer-range plans to address the urgent need to restore the availability of mortgage credit to first-time home buyers and those in high-cost markets.

For most of us, the current cyclical downturn in our industry has been no picnic. But with early signs of a recovery not too far off, you had better believe that it would have been far worse if we did not have friends in Washington with the power to help make things better.

The challenge in this year’s elections is to keep the friends we have and elect new ones into office. The critical issues we face aren’t limited to the ups and downs of the housing market. Decisions made on immigration, environmental regulation, trade policy, health care, flood insurance, workplace safety rules, and much more all make a vital difference to our businesses. We need men and women in public office who will listen to our concerns and understand the impact of their positions on our ability to perpetuate housing and the American dream. And as an industry participant, it is your duty to see that the defenders of housing are the candidates who prevail at the ballot box.

As members of the NAHB, we are extremely fortunate to have an organization that will help us fulfill our political responsibilities in this pivotal election year. It’s called BUILD-PAC, the political action committee in Washington that puts builders at the table when it comes time to rally support for housing. We are proud of the funds we have raised to help elect pro-housing candidates. In the 2005–2006 election cycle, BUILD-PAC collected an unprecedented $4 million. In this election cycle, we are aiming even higher—for $5 million. As good as that sounds, the truth is that we have a long, long way to go before we reach our full potential.

We have scored some impressive victories in Washington recently, but the battle hasn’t ended. We still face some very tough challenges in resolving the credit crunch, restoring confidence in financial markets, and putting the housing industry back on track. To succeed, we must increase the number of industry members participating in the political process and contributing to political action committees that are fighting for our industry at the local, state, and national levels.

Show your determination to make housing a winner in the November elections by making a solid investment in our industry and putting the good friends of housing where we need them.