Davidson Delivers Remarks at Hearing to Conduct Oversight of the Department of Housing and Urban Development
Washington,
June 21, 2023 -
Today, the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance, led by Chairman Warren Davidson (OH-08), is holding a hearing entitled “HUD Oversight: Testimony of the HUD Inspector General.”
Watch Chairman Davidson’s opening remarks here.
Read Chairman Davidson’s opening remarks as prepared for delivery:
“Today the Subcommittee will hear from the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Honorable Ms. Rae Oliver Davis.
“We welcome your testimony and thank you for all of your work to ensure that HUD operates more effectively for the people it serves and the taxpayers who fund its programs.
“Indeed, it is no small task to oversee an agency like HUD with a long-documented record of waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement.
“Most recently, the Office of Inspector General reported that it found $950 million in HUD funds that could be redirected and recovered $49 million in collections. Your office has also made numerous recommendations that, if executed, would save taxpayers tens of billions of dollars.
“In addition, Ms. Oliver Davis, your team pursued enforcement actions that resulted in 51 criminal convictions, 5 civil actions, 12 government debarment actions, and over $28 million in restitution and judgements.
“These actions save taxpayers money and help protect the very people HUD is supposed to be helping, which is why we have proposed legislation along with this hearing to make the IG’s appearance before this Committee an annual event.
“And the work of the Inspector General has only gotten tougher, more complicated, and even more essential in recent years.
“HUD’s annual budget has grown from $44 billion in 2015 to $75 billion today. A 70 percent increase.
“Further, as a result of spending on natural disasters as well as COVID, HUD now manages over $100 billion in federal grants. That’s a staggering amount, and as you reported, Ms. Oliver Davis, HUD has had numerous challenges in overseeing grant money for programs like the Community Development Block Grant for disaster recovery.
“CDBG-DR, as it’s known, is now HUD’s single-largest grant, and believe it or not, it is a program that has never been formally authorized by Congress.
“In fact, most of HUD’s programs are funded each year but remain unauthorized. These include programs for the nation’s most vulnerable populations, such as public housing, Section 8, and health-and-safety programs.
“It’s a problem that I believe this Subcommittee must address to ensure that HUD receives proper oversight. A lapse in authorization is also a lapse by Congress in providing the scrutiny that HUD – of all agencies – needs.
“It is clear to me that we must have a closer look at HUD’s management, organizational structure, and the way it operates.
“Creating a smarter, better-run, more efficient HUD should be a goal we all share, which is why I have proposed setting up a new bipartisan independent Commission to study what works and does not work in HUD’s current organization and report back to Congress on how we can streamline its operations to get better productivity and outcomes for the same amount of spending.
“Thankfully, however, we are able to hear from the Inspector General today, whose boots on the ground at HUD have done important work in highlighting some of the agency’s most serious deficiencies.
“Notably, Ms. Oliver Davis and her team have found a shocking abundance of health and safety concerns in HUD-assisted properties.
“For example, one report identified almost 33,000 “life-threatening exigent health and safety” issues in public housing.
“Another identified poor physical conditions in multifamily housing developments as well as a failure of HUD to flag these conditions.
“And yet another one reported inadequate oversight of lead-based remediation in HUD properties—a particular problem for young children who are susceptible to the harmful effects of lead.
“This is particularly concerning as HUD’s core mission as a federal agency is to provide decent, safe, sanitary, and affordable housing.
“I expect that HUD will do all in its power to immediately address these failures–it’s quite honestly unacceptable not to do so when lives are at stake.
“All of this only shines a light on why the testimony and the work of the HUD Inspector General is so critical.
“Ms. Oliver Davis, we look forward to hearing your remarks and working with you on ways to address these and other issues for what, I would say, is an agency with significant challenges.”
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