Transportation, HUD

Congressman David Price (D-NC), Chair of the Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcomittee, delivered the following remarks at the Subcommittee's hearing on "The Department of Housing and Urban Development's Management of Housing Contracts During the Shutdown":

Welcome, everyone, to the first THUD Subcommittee hearing of 2019.

Today, we will be conducting oversight of HUD's management during the recent government shutdown, with a focus on nearly 1,200 expired housing contracts that put tens of thousands of tenants at risk.

I'm pleased to have Brian Montgomery, the Acting Deputy Secretary of HUD, and Irv Dennis, the Department's Chief Financial Officer, here to testify this morning. Thank you for being here, and I look forward to your testimony.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I am pleased that we are beginning consideration of HR 4745, the FY 2015 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies Appropriations bill.

I want to thanking Chairman Latham for his work on this bill. He has been a good friend and great Chairman over these last few years and I have enjoyed working with him.

I also want to thank the staff on the majority and minority side. They have worked well together over these last few months.

On paper, this bill appears to be nearly $1.2 billion higher than the FY 2014 enacted level.

However, the sharp differences between OMB and CBO on the receipt estimates for the FHA loan program mean that this bill is actually $1.8 billionlower than the FY 2014 bill.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

First, I would like to thank Mr. Latham and Mr. Pastor for including language in the manager's amendment that designates some unexpended funds at the FRA for activities related to improving the rail transport of energy products like crude oil.

I appreciate the efforts of the Chairman and Ranking Member to put this bill together. Their job was made all the more difficult by a much lower than expected FHA and Ginnie Mae receipts.

Unfortunately, the investments in this bill aren't enough to maintain the country's highway and transit infrastructure. I am specifically concerned about cuts to the following critical programs:

Thank you Mr. Chairman.

I want to thank you for listening to our concerns and for keeping an open dialogue as we have moved through the process.

The Chairman received a tough allocation. On paper, it looks like the allocation is nearly $1.2 billion higher than last year. Don't be deceived.

Because of the sharp differences between OMB and CBO's receipt estimates for the FHA program, this bill is actually $1.8 billionlower than the FY 2014 bill.

With that in mind, the Chairman did try to take care of the safety mission of the Department of Transportation and try to ensure that everyone housed in FY 2014 will be housed in FY 2015.

However, many other programs are frozen at last year's level and others are cut even deeper. For example:

- FTA's Capital Investment Grant program is cut by $252 million;

I would like to thank Chairman Latham and Ranking Member Pastor and welcome Secretary Foxx.

First, I want to commend the work of Chairman Latham and Ranking Member Pastor who have both announced that this will be their last Congress. Iowa and Arizona along with this Committee have benefitted greatly from their service. They will be sorely missed.

This is the Secretary's first hearing before the House Appropriations Committee. I want to personally thank you for the Department's commitment to building the new Tappan Zee Bridge, and I look forward to continuing to work with you on the project.

With a 25% increase for infrastructure spending compared to the 2014 enacted level, the President's budget answers the call for rebuilding our aging country's infrastructure, which the American Society of Civil Engineers grades on average as a "D".