During a House Financial Services Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Dan Meuser (R-PA) spoke about the need to reform the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
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00:00The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will come to order.
00:03Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare a recess of the committee at any time.
00:09This hearing is entitled Decades of Dysfunction, Restoring Accountability at HUD.
00:14Without objection, all members will have five legislative days within which to submit extraneous materials to the Chair for inclusion in the record.
00:23I now recognize myself for four minutes to give an opening statement.
00:28Today's hearing is entitled, again, Decades of Dysfunction, Restoring Accountability at HUD.
00:34I would like to thank the Acting Inspector General for being here today to discuss persistent waste, fraud, and mismanagement at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
00:43For decades, HUD's IG has investigated, uncovered, and highlighted severe deficiencies plaguing the agency.
00:50HUD's core mission is to provide safe and affordable housing, something very, very important.
00:55And it's something we all support on this subcommittee.
00:59However, HUD continues to very often waste taxpayer funds while failing to meet its most basic responsibilities and has little to no mechanisms to track and report these issues.
01:11This is a fact.
01:12Year after year, HUD's appropriations are squandered, mismanaged, or lost through fraud and improper payments.
01:19In 2017, $1.7 billion was lost through improper payments, and there's no evidence to suggest anything has been corrected or improved.
01:29Accountability is in short supply, and a lack of transparency has eroded public trust.
01:35Yet, HUD's spending increased from $45.4 billion to $78.4 billion from 2021 to 2024.
01:43Unfortunately, HUD's failures extend beyond the risks of fraud and its inability to track and report improper payments.
01:51The agency relies on outdated IT systems, some designed and built in the 1970s, and in turn lacks the data collection processes required for effective oversight.
02:01When I served in Pennsylvania as the revenue secretary, we modernized our IT systems, and the improvements in tax revenue were so significant, people were actually asked what we were doing differently.
02:15What was – how were things improving so much?
02:17It wasn't magic.
02:18It was better data, better oversight, and better decision-making.
02:22While HUD faces many challenges, its minimal oversight of programs and grantees also raises serious concerns, requiring grantees to have a fraud prevention plan as part of the grant application, along with enforcing enhanced data sharing across HUD programs, would be beneficial steps towards achieving a more efficient and accountable HUD.
02:44Public housing authorities, under the supervision of HUD, have operated unchecked and without consequence.
02:51Many routinely fail to meet basic HUD quality standards, with no commitment to improving operations.
02:58Requiring such PHAs to timely and accurately report overpayments should be a condition of their funding.
03:07Republicans want HUD to provide the most effective housing for Americans as possible.
03:11Fraud and overpayments take valuable dollars away from that mission.
03:15One thing is very clear.
03:17HUD cannot continue on its current path.
03:19Things need to change.
03:21That's why I sent a letter to the GAO asking for a report on HUD's improper payments and fraud risk management structure.
03:29I believe that with President Trump's Doge Committee, proper congressional oversight, and Secretary Turner at the helm, a new day at HUD is soon approaching.
03:41I yield back.
03:42I yield back.