Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa looks at the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s oversight of how local housing authorities around the country spend billions of taxpayer dollars. Grassley has found HUD’s oversight sorely lacking, leading to significant misspent funding, uncovered in large part by diligent local news reporters across the country. This month, HUD posted salary data for the top paid employees at each housing authority across the country, under pressure from Grassley. HUD is responsible for enforcing a cap on all federal money that can be used for local housing authority salaries. Grassley pressured HUD to make salary data transparent to help enforce the cap.
Grassley made the following comment today on President Obama’s plans to announce a new nominee for HUD secretary.
“President Obama should take this opportunity to exact change. He should insist that his administration do a much better job of making sure billions of federal tax dollars are used as intended for safe, affordable housing for those in need.
“Too many housing authority executives use tax dollars to feather their own nests. HUD needs to enforce the salary cap on federal funding. Top compensation packages need to be transparent going forward, not just under pressure from a senator. HUD’s top performer designation is meaningless, and that should change. HUD should debar more corrupt housing authority executives from doing business with the federal government. The list goes on. The President and his new nominee should work to change the mindset that the federal government writes checks, then looks the other way. The buck stops with the President and his designees.”
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