Political Quotes

“I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. Today, I rise to urge passage of the Housing Assistance Efficiency Act, a bill that I introduced earlier this year. As the ranking member said, an identical version of this legislation passed the House by voice vote last December. Many laws are intended to ensure efficiency in Federal agencies but often have unintended consequences, preventing agencies from serving the public and costing taxpayers money. Currently, the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Continuum of Care Program is forced to spend too much time fulfilling administrative obligations, instead of helping individuals and families transition out of homelessness and putting them on a path to independent living. This legislation will reduce government inefficiency and make it easier for Americans struggling to find a foothold to access the already existing resources available to them. Twice each fiscal year, HUD has to reallocate unused or returned funds in the Emergency Solutions Grants Program. Because funds are almost never unused or returned under this program, the reallocation of funds takes a lot of time and human capital to complete but with little end purpose. It is administratively more efficient to reallocate funds only once per year. This frees up HUD employees to provide more human resources toward better providing service to constituents. We shouldn't saddle HUD with more administrative work that isn't helping anyone.…”