On the recordJuly 29, 2010
The bill before us includes $40 million for HUD to provide technical assistance to nonprofit organizations, cities, States on how to use HUD funding efficiently and effectively. The amendment removes every penny, every penny, of this technical assistance funding from HUD. It is a meat axe amendment. Cutting funding for technical assistance does nothing but make the programs less effective, which I doubt is the gentleman's intent. In fact, technical assistance is the only way that communities can increase their capacity and improve program delivery to their vulnerable populations who need assistance. Technical assistance funding allows HUD to train communities' own staff on the issues that most affect their particular population. For example, technical assistance funds are used to enhance and inform responses to the foreclosure crisis when HUD provides funding for foreclosure counseling and renovating vacant homes. These funds are responsive to need. They address broader social and economic imperatives, such as the recent increase in the homeless population, which has been brought on by the longest and deepest recession since the Second World War. To deny communities technical assistance is to render the HUD programs less effective than they can and should be, and that, very simply, slows down the recovery. I urge a "no" vote on the gentleman's amendment.
