Members of Congress Return from August Recess
On September 9th, members of the House of Representatives and Senate returned after their month-long August Recess; members of the Senate Intelligence Committee convened earlier in response to possible military action in Syria. The current fiscal year (FY 2013) is coming to a close on October 1, and members of Congress have a limited time frame to address critical issues.
A major issue that the members must resolve is funding levels for federal programs. Before the recess occurred, both the House and Senate failed to pass any appropriations bills. The appropriations bills for Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development were the first to receive floor action in both chambers, but disagreements over funding levels derailed the bills. Congress will now most likely need a continuing resolution (CR) to fund federal programs and avoid a government shutdown.
Other issues like the upcoming debt ceiling debate and the ongoing crisis in Syria will likely dominate legislative calendars going forward. NAHMA will continue to advocate for full-funding in housing programs as our nation’s funding levels are resolved.
Appropriations Committee Introduces a Continuing Resolution
On September 10, the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Hal Rogers (R-KY), introduced H.J. Res. 59, a bill to fund the federal government for FY 2014. This bill is a continuing resolution – or a piece of legislation that provides the federal government with budget authority so that it may continue operations until regular appropriations are enacted.
The legislation would continue funding for government programs and services at slightly less than the current annual rate until December 15, 2013; this includes the cuts brought by sequestration. Overall, the CR would provide $986.3 billion for the federal government. Although several members of Congress had called for the defunding of the Affordable Care Act before as part of a wider negotiation, this CR does not attempt any measure to stop the President’s health care law. Mr. Rogers said:
“This is not the preferred way of doing the nation’s financial work – this Congress can and should be passing regular Appropriations bills that reflect the country’s changing fiscal needs and realities. However, given the late date, a Continuing Resolution is necessary to stop a government-wide shut down that would halt critical government programs and services, destabilize our economy, and put the safety and well-being of our citizens at risk.
“Our country desperately needs a long-term budget solution that ends the draconian cuts put into place by sequestration, and that provides for a responsible, sustainable, and attainable federal budget. It is my hope that this stopgap legislation will provide time for all sides to come together to reach this essential goal.”
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) countered that the annualized amount spent in this bill exceeds the cap that was agreed upon in the Budget Control Act ($967 billion), and that another round of sequestration will occur to lower expenses. According to the letter from the CBO to House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI): “If appropriations in place at the end of this session of the Congress were to exceed one or both of the caps on budget authority for 2014, the Office of Management and Budget would be required to issue a sequestration order 15 days after adjournment that reduced appropriations to the capped amounts”.
To view the CBO letter, please
click here.
HUD’s Inspector General Appears before the House of Representatives
On Tuesday, September 10, the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee conducted a hearing with HUD Inspector General David Montoya. The purpose of the hearing (titled “Reducing Waste, Fraud and Abuse in Housing Programs: Inspector General Perspectives”) was to examine the recommendations of the Inspector General for improving the management and oversight of HUD programs. Montoya’s testimony focused on rental assistance programs in the Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) but only mentioned Multifamily in passing.
The Inspector General’s testimony highlighted that during the last two semiannual periods, his office issued 33 audits in the PIH program area, reporting about $25 million in questioned costs and nearly $6 million in funds to be put to better use. His testimony further noted that the Joint Civil Fraud Division, which focuses on mortgage-fraud in the single family market, will be expanding its focus to conduct more investigative work in HUD’s other main program areas of community planning and development, public housing and multifamily housing. An emphasis would be placed on grant fraud.
In the Housing Choice Voucher Program, Montoya mentioned that HUD has been working to develop a uniform inspection protocol that would provide improved oversight of the physical condition of rental units in the program in response to physical quality standard audits. He mention that the Department has met challenges in monitoring the HCV program because the program is electronically monitored through PHAs’ self-assessments and other self-reported information collected in HUD’s information systems. Montoya claimed that previous audits have shown that “self-assessments are not always accurate and there remains some question as to the reliability of the information contained in PIH systems”. According to Montoya, “of continuing concern is the level of public corruption exhibited by some of the local government officials entrusted to administer these programs”; he provides an example in his testimony. During the last two semiannual periods in the HCV program, Montoya claimed that HUD investigators completed a total of 121 administrative or civil actions; 314 convictions, pleas or pre-trial diversions; and had financial recoveries totaling more than $14 million.
To combat the abuse of funds, the Inspector General’s office plans to focus stakeholder and HUD management’s attention on problem areas in PIH programs. The areas of concern that the Department has highlighted are:
- Ethics/Governance Structure
- Housing Quality Standards
- Improper Payments
- Issues Related to the Performance of Executive Directors and other Officials and Their Movement from One PHA to Another
- Moving to Work programs
- PIH Program Oversight and Enforcement
- Procurement and Contracting
- Questionable/Ineffective Use of Administrative Funds
- Receiverships
Members of the Subcommittee from both parties applauded the Inspector General Office’s response to abuse and fraud. Some were critical of mismanaged relief assistance from Hurricane Sandy.
To view David Montoya’s testimony, and to watch an archived video of the hearing, please
click here.
