The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development held a hearing on October 17 to address ongoing concerns with HUD’s refusal to provide Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) mitigation funding to Puerto Rico. Congress included a provision in its last disaster supplemental bill in February requiring HUD to release the mitigation funds to states and territories by September 4, but HUD continues to withhold funding for Puerto Rico. The NLIHC-led Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition (DHRC) of over 800 national, state, and local organizations called for Congress to hold the agency accountable after HUD missed the deadline.
The subcommittee members pressed HUD Chief Financial Officer Irv Dennis and HUD Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development David Wohl on why the agency ignored the statutory deadline set by Congress. The HUD officials claimed the delay stems from concerns about a HUD Office of the Inspector General (OIG) audit of the Puerto Rico housing department, the resignation of Puerto Rico’s governor over the summer, and general concerns about the territory’s ability to manage the funds. These claims were dismissed by Chairman David Price (D-NC) and other committee members, who said the release of a Federal Register notice would not have prevented HUD from addressing management concerns, and the governor’s resignation would not have affected HUD’s partners in the Puerto Rico government. HUD OIG Counsel Jeremy Kirkland also appeared as a witness and said the audit of the Puerto Rico housing department did not find substantial problems and that any potential audit would not have prevented the Federal Register notice from being released by the congressional deadline.
Some members of Congress and witnesses also spoke in favor of enacting legislation supported by NLIHC and the DHRC to formally authorize HUD’s CDBG-DR program. Assistant Secretary Wohl said the passage of such a bill would make federal disaster recovery funding more quickly accessible, and OIG Counsel Kirkland expressed his office’s support for the move. The House may vote on the “Reforming Disaster Recovery Act,” introduced by Representative Ann Wagner (R-MO) and Rep. Al Green (D-TX), in the coming weeks. The bill was unanimously passed out of the House Financial Services Committee.
Read the DHRC’s statement on HUD’s failure to release funding for Puerto Rico at: https://bit.ly/2lGFetF
Listen to a recording of the hearing at: https://bit.ly/2BucEQR
View a fact sheet on the Reforming Disaster Recovery Act at: https://bit.ly/2XDJyfD