During a House Financial Services Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-TX) spoke about the HUD Transparency Act, which mandates the Inspector General at the Department of Housing and Urban Development to testify annually before Congress.
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00:00General Liddy Yields, the gentlewoman from Texas, Ms. De La Cruz is now recognized for five minutes.
00:06Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for allowing me to wave on to this hearing.
00:12This is a very important topic.
00:14HUD, as the vice chair of Housing Insurance Subcommittee, efficiency and a properly functioning HUD
00:25is of great importance and very important to me.
00:29In my district, HUD housing is something that we have in all of my district.
00:36Efficiency, identifying fraud, waste, and abuse, as you have done so, and thank you for your very candid response.
00:45In fact, some of the things that I heard is that you and your team have identified several areas where we can cut back on fraud, waste, and abuse.
00:58What was concerning to me is that you had, in 2025, high-priority items, 35 of them, which, at the end of the year, 24, approximately, were still open.
01:11When I looked at your office and the fact that the IG had not been, the OIG had not been forced to testify in front of Congress,
01:29and that it had been five years since we had heard from your team about the fraud, waste, and abuse,
01:37I thought to myself, well, that's just unacceptable.
01:40As a small business owner myself, I regularly have meetings with my employees to say,
01:47where are you at?
01:48What is the temperature?
01:50What challenges are you facing?
01:52How can we help?
01:54And this is when I decided to create something to help us.
01:58One of my bills focused on preventing fraud, waste, and abuse at HUD is noticed in this hearing.
02:05It is H.R. 225, HUD Transparency Act of 2025, which last Congress passed with overwhelmingly support from both sides of the aisle,
02:17and it passed by voice vote on the House floor.
02:21The bill is really simple.
02:23It requires the HUD Office of Inspector General to testify annually before Congress.
02:29Again, very important.
02:31The need for this legislation is underscored by the fact that the HUD Inspector General's office, again, hadn't testified since 2023.
02:41Mr. Begg, having hearing you today, having you here today and listening to what you have said furthers my resolve for the need for this bill.
02:54So my question to you is, as acting HUD IG, can you speak about the impact that pointed congressional attention in the form of a required annual HUD OIG testimony
03:08would have on HUD and the OIG's mission to help prevent fraud, waste, and abuse?
03:16Thank you for the question.
03:18We welcome the opportunity to come before this committee and our other committees of jurisdiction as requested to provide testimony.
03:26We are thrilled to have an opportunity to talk about the important work our staff is doing
03:30and also stress the need for actions that can help HUD be more successful.
03:35So do you feel that by coming here on an annual basis and bringing your concerns to our committee,
03:45that that will help further support the need to stop the waste and abuse and give you the tools that you need?
03:53I do.
03:55Excellent.
03:56The last question that I have in this short minute is I also introduced another piece of legislation,
04:03which is ensuring access to the Whistle Protections Act to provide whistleblower protections for employees of HUD contractors
04:10with contracts predating 2013, Section 4712, the anti-retaliation provisions.
04:20I know this is one of the first topics that you mention at the top of your Management Challenges Report in FY25.
04:31So can you briefly share with us how important whistleblower protections are to help preventing fraud, waste, and abuse at HUD?
04:41Whistleblowers are critically important for identifying fraud, waste, and abuse.
04:44And the thousands of contractors that HUD utilizes have many thousands of employees who have direct knowledge of and access to information
04:55that we would want to know about fraud, waste, and abuse.
04:58Ensuring that they're free from retaliation is key so that they feel protected to come forward without those protections.
05:07The chilling effect on them disclosing information that's critical to improving HUD programs is significant.
05:13Thank you so much. I yield back.