Ranking Member Clyburn Remarks at Fiscal Year 2026 Department of Housing and Urban Development Budget Hearing

WASHINGTON — Congressman James E. Clyburn (D-SC-06), Ranking Member of the Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, delivered the following remarks at the subcommittee's fiscal year 2026 budget hearing for the Department of Housing and Urban Development:

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and welcome Secretary Turner. 

I think we all agree that housing is a basic human need and serves as a foundation for education, health, and financial outcomes for nearly every family in America. And where you live matters. Without a safe and stable place to live, it is difficult for families to improve educational outcomes, maintain good health, or increase their earnings and build wealth. 

Across the country, more than 771,000 people are experiencing homelessness and 75 percent of low-income renters spend more than half of their income on rent. 

According to the Census Bureau, last year, the annual cost of renting grew faster, 3.8 percent, than home values, 1.8 percent, for the first time since 2011. This comes at a time when more than 56 percent of African American households and 53 percent of Hispanic households pay more than 30 percent of their income on rent, compared to less than 47 percent of white Americans. 

Meanwhile, because of existing budget constraints, only one in five eligible families can receive federal rental assistance. Despite these disparaging realities, your Department’s 2026 budget request proposes to cut HUD funding by more than half. This is not only unacceptable, but unrealistic given the dire need to lower the cost of living for Americans.

Mr. Secretary, your budget proposes to eliminate Section 8, Public Housing, Housing for the Elderly, Housing for Persons with Disabilities, Housing for Persons with AIDS/HIV, and the Continuum of Care programs. Instead, you are proposing to establish a so-called “State Rental Assistance Program” to block grant rent payments via a formula you have yet to define. Your budget also proposes to eliminate nearly all of HUD’s housing construction, supply, and preservation programs. Time does not permit me to enumerate them. 

These so-called “reforms” would shift HUD program costs onto low-income residents, and I have yet to see from your budget materials what funding we would save if these time-limits and work requirements become law. This doesn’t help families who are already working multiple jobs to become self-sufficient. Instead, it creates chaos, financial uncertainty and pushes these families into more severe trade-offs – a choice of feeding your family, paying for medications, or paying rent. 

Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not highlight the cuts to fair housing enforcement and your attempts to deregulate longstanding civil rights law. Mr. Secretary, let’s remember the long and painful history that led to the creation of the Fair Housing Act. The Federal Housing Administration, banks, and insurance companies literally drew red lines on maps around neighborhoods where they refused to provide home loans and insurance to otherwise qualified homebuyers. I know. I was born in one of them, and I currently live in one of them.

This discrimination extended to Black veterans returning from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. These men and women had served their country yet were excluded from the GI Bill's housing benefits that were transformational for white families. Black veterans were denied VA-backed loans. Of the first 3,350 VA Housing loans in Mississippi only two went to Blacks. Not two percent, two. Not even fighting for our country abroad earned blacks a fair shot at the American dream here at home. Black families were denied the primary path to building generational wealth and that created a racial wealth gap that persists to this day. I know this as well. I served on two of the boards of the predecessor banks of what is now Bank of America. I chaired the community reinvestment committee, and I served on the audit committee. I led investigations into my own bank for its discrimination.

The Fair Housing Law of 1968 represents a simple but crucial promise that every American would have an equal opportunity to secure safe, decent housing. Unfortunately, since the start of this administration, we have seen an attack on longstanding laws that were enacted to stop excluding blacks from the greatness of this country. 

The current state of housing and the cost of living in America calls on us to question our national priorities. Unfortunately, Mr. Secretary, this budget proposal ignores far too many realities and is not a reflection of what should be the values of our country. It is an exploitation of our most vulnerable. 

Mr. Chairman, I implore my colleagues on this panel to work together to find real solutions to the housing crisis and drive down the cost of living rather, not increase the economic burdens of everyday Americans. 

I yield back.

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