'The Federal Government Is Not Blameless': Brian Schatz Urges More Work To Combat Housing Crisis

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]Senator Schatz. Thank you, Chair, and Ranking Member. Mr. Secretary, I want to thank you for your support for Maui, specifically with a Community Development Block Grant um disaster recovery funding. Yes, sir. Um and I I we really are grateful for your help um and for initiating the contact. I mean, we were going to call you in any case. I As you know, I'm not shy about advocating for for for the needs of uh disaster uh victims, but but you were right on it, and I just appreciate that.

[00:00:26]Just a This is the easiest softball you're going to get all morning. Do I have your commitment to continue to help the people of Maui?

[00:00:33]Yes, sir. Happy to uh work with you.

[00:00:35]I've enjoyed working with you thus far and will continue. Thank you. Um I want to talk about the pro-housing uh program, which was also zeroed out. Now, look, lots of things get zeroed out, and lots of things get restored via this committee, and I anticipate this is also going to be one of those, but I just want to make the case You said to to um to Senator Murray that there is a regulatory environment that is stifling the construction of new housing. I agree with that. And because we're not an authorizing committee, and because we don't do county ordinances regarding zoning and restrictive covenants and all the rest of it, the only thing we can do is use some federal resources to incentivize states and counties to deregulate. And that's what this program is for, and so um I I'm hoping we can work together um uh to um modify Mhm. the pro-housing program as it is currently operating. I know you had a concern about racial equity being one of the criteria for grants. That's fine. That's your prerogative. You get to change the Yeah. the um the grant criteria, but this is still a very smart use of federal resources. If we have all decided, and it seems to me in the last four or five years, on a bipartisan uh basis, we've decided there is a national housing shortage, and the federal government is not blameless in this.

[00:01:53]It's maybe not primarily our responsibility, but we're not blameless in this. And to the extent that we fund all these programs, the throughput problem ends up being we can't construct anything because of all these rules. So here we got this bipartisan program enacted on a unanimous basis to try to nudge states and counties to like get it together.

[00:02:15]And so I'm hoping we can work through whatever objections you have to the to the sort of current iteration and get to a place where it's consistent with your goals, with the president's goals because this is one of the very few areas where we are not in disagreement as the two major political parties. So I would hate for this get to get swept up in the sort of anti-DEI stuff or any other sort of culture war stuff that you have been very effective in avoiding all that nonsense. And I'm afraid that this thing is going to get swept up in that. Can you comment on on how you think the pro-housing program may may continue to be effective? Well, I I appreciate that Senator Schatz and I assure you I'm not going to get swept up in anything but my job and the priorities that I do have. And you're right about the DEI part of it. But the the biggest concern that I have, as I said before to you and your colleagues, is you know, we have a lot of complex programs at HUD. And when I first came in, as I sat before the confirmation committee and I sat before you all last year, you know, my job is really to take an assessment of all of these programs and make sure that the money that you all appropriated that you appropriated, that we're being good stewards and that we're using it for the intended mission. Sure. And that's your And PRO and then and then I'll I'll finish and let you go, sir. I'm sorry.

[00:03:35]But PRO thus far has been awarded about $185 million, but only 8 million has been spent. And to me, that's not a good use and a good stewardship of taxpayer money. Well, we could refocus, really working with the locals and states. and so 185 million awarded, but only 8 million spent, I don't think is a good stewardship at this point.

[00:03:57]>> Yeah, I think some of that has to do with the delay in NOFOs and RFPs and executing on the federal government side. Then the counties get the mostly counties get the money and the fact that this money hasn't been spent is a pipeline problem, not a policy problem.

[00:04:12]The other thing I'd say is that I just want your commitment. It is your prerogative to determine the administration of the program. It is your prerogative to propose changes to any program or any budgetary level. It is our prerogative to enact what we want. And after that, you still got to implement. Are we in agreement on that?

[00:04:30]Indeed. Okay, thank you. And then uh just finally, can you talk about um the need for CDBG-DR uh uh authorization. We have this program, which we definitely run, right? But there's no authorizing statute, and as a practical matter, that means that >> Right.

[00:04:48]communities that want to recover got to wait for an act of Congress, and that could be a political matter or a I got to wait for a red state or a blue state to have a sufficiently damaging disaster before I get my DR money for my constituents, and everyone's starting from scratch every single time. The House Financial Services Committee in their new Road to Housing draft removed the unanimously passed CDBG-DR authorization from their bill, and I'm just wondering c- can we keep the CDBG-DR thing separate and apart from whatever other fights are happening about uh you know, hedge funds owning housing or crypto and the and the Federal Reserve. Like, this is just something we should do because it's not as though we're not spun- spending money on CDBG-DR. We're just doing it in the stupidest possible way because we have no statutory framework to do it in a smart way. So, can you please agree with me?

[00:05:45]Happy to work with you and this committee.

[00:05:48]You know, as as a steward of HUD, you know, I traveled to many places that have experienced disasters. And so, however we can get the resources to the people in those disasters in an efficient appropriate manner, I will carry that out. Thank you.

[00:06:04]Senator Hoeven. Thank you, Madam Chair.