Political Quotes

“I rise, obviously, in support of the rule. But let me talk about a little problem I have with some of the reforms that the Housing and Urban Development Department is doing. I have had an ongoing dialog with HUD over the last 4 areas, and my main point of discussion is making sure that in the Houston area HUD offers all the program areas that serve the people in Houston, TX, the fourth largest city in the country, which they do not. The problem we have now is, HUD has a reform plan to refocus, streamline, and downsize the Department. In our Houston office we have over 100 HUD employees now. Now I hear that we are going to reduce them to 14. So those 14 are going to have to do the work of those over 100 employees. We do not even have all the program areas offered now in the Houston office, and yet, in this reorganization that has been going on now for a number of years, we are not going to have all the program areas offered in Houston. If they are offering them with 14 employees, they are not going to be able to do the job. HUD now, under the HUD 20/20 reform plan, they have developed two mission statements. The first is to empower people in communities to improve themselves and succeed in today's time of transition, and the second is to restore public trust by achieving and demonstrating competence. These are admirable goals, but I am not sure that releasing 85 employees or staffers will help achieve those goals and make HUD effective in the Houston markets.”