Tom Latham: “Woman, again, I oppose the gentlelady's amendment. This bill provides $45 million for housing counseling--the same as…”

“Woman, again, I oppose the gentlelady's amendment. This bill provides $45 million for housing counseling--the same as last year and $45 million more than in fiscal year 2011. HUD just reorganized into the new Office of Housing Counseling. I would say that before we give additional resources to HUD's Housing Counseling, we need to make sure HUD has the capability to effectively implement this program. I think they ought to be able to walk before they run here. Housing Counseling agencies are still complaining of the painstaking bureaucracy involved in applying and receiving these funds. On the other hand, people could get housing counseling from many government sources, including NeighborWorks. {time} 2210 NeighborWorks gets funding out the door quickly, has extensive metrics ensuring the proper use of the funds. We increased NeighborWorks by $10 million over last year. We need HUD to do this thing right. So until they can prove to us they could, taking funding from HUD's salaries and expenses would not be an effective use of government resources. Again, Madam Chair, I would urge a ``no'' vote. I yield back the balance of my time.”