House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) rebuked Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Marcia Fudge on Jan. 11 for not appearing before the committee for 906 days.
The last time Ms. Fudge testified before the committee was July 20, 2021.
To open the hearing, Mr. McHenry said that it wasn’t the GOP-led committee’s fault that she hadn’t appeared before it.
“Your office routinely avoided responding to numerous requests to appear in the last calendar year, but glad you’re here at the beginning of this calendar year,” he said.
By not showing up, Ms. Fudge was refusing to comply with the committee’s duty to conduct oversight of HUD, which Ms. Fudge has led since March 10, 2021, having previously served in the House between 2008 and 2021.
Mr. McHenry also said her absenteeism “sends the wrong message to the American people that are struggling, struggling with high housing prices, lack of availability to the American taxpayers generally and to the members of this committee, all of whom recognize the fragility of our housing market.”
Concluding her opening statement, Ms. Fudge fired back at Mr. McHenry:
“It was not my schedule that did not allow us to meet,” she said. “The House schedule changed.”
Mr. McHenry appeared speechless for a few moments.
Despite not appearing before the committee, Ms. Fudge has testified before Congress numerous times in between her last appearance before the committee and her latest one. The last time she was on Capitol Hill was in May 2023, testifying before House the House Committee on Appropriations’ Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development.
In addition to lambasting her for not showing up to the committee for almost three years, Mr. McHenry lamented the state of housing since the Biden administration took office on Jan. 20, 2021.
“Mortgage rates have increased 150 percent since their all-time low in January 2021, rents have risen by more than 15 percent nationally since 2021, and homelessness increased by 12 percent over last year,” he said.
Finally, Mr. McHenry denounced what he said was the state of housing for disabled veterans.
“HUD’s disparate treatment of disabled veterans seeking housing assistance is exacerbating the veterans’ homelessness crisis,“ he said. ”Under your leadership, the agency has repeatedly failed to do right by these American heroes.”
For example, said Mr. McHenry, HUD has multiple definitions of what is income as opposed to one and, therefore, “this means under some definitions they might qualify and under others they might not.”
Moreover, he continued, “these conflicting rules understandably confuse applicants and grantees alike, leaving some disabled veterans without access to the support they qualify for.”
Mr. McHenry ridiculed Ms. Fudge over her handling of the matter.
“Your lack of attention to such a serious problem facing our nation’s veterans is unacceptable,“ he said. ”Denying support to disabled veterans in any capacity is abhorrent. HUD has a legal and moral obligation to do better.”
Ms. Fudge placed the blame of disabled veterans not getting housing on the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Treasury Department.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the committee’s ranking member, also decried the state of public housing over the past few years, though she came to the defense of the administration.
“There is a shortage of 14 million homes for rent or purchase in the United States. And extremely low-income renters, in particular, are experiencing an absolute shortage of 4 million homes,” Ms. Waters said.
“Meanwhile, over the last several decades, housing costs have outpaced wage growth,” she continued. “It’s absolutely unacceptable that there is no state metro area or county where a minimum wage worker is able to afford the rent on a modest two-bedroom home.”
Ms. Fudge defended her record at HUD and said that the administration has made strides when it comes to housing in the United States.
Coming out of the COVID pandemic, she said, “HUD has made historic strides to provide direct housing assistance, expand opportunities for homeownership and affordable renting house rental housing, without discrimination in housing, and build strong and resilient communities in urban centers and rural areas alike.”
Finally, Ms. Fudge also cited what she said “is a historic level of construction happening across the country” as HUD has “worked across all programs to build fund or preserve at least 1.4 million units of affordable housing.”
