Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2014

Floor Speech

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Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to offer this amendment with my colleagues, Mr. Kelly from Pennsylvania, Mr. McKinley of West Virginia, and Mr. Barletta of Pennsylvania. Our amendment puts $350 million back into the Community Development Block Grant program. The CDBG's budget has been reduced by $1.3 billion from last year, and these reductions we believe will deeply affect our local communities.

With our national debt approaching $17 trillion, it is critical that Congress tighten its belt and direct limited resources to the most important priorities. I believe that funding for CDBG is a high priority.

This amendment has been scored by the Congressional Budget Office, and it will not increase the budget authority proposed in this bill. In fact, it will actually reduce the outlays for fiscal year 2014 by $129 million.

The Community Development Block Grant program plays a critical role for the many communities who are trying to find funds to improve lower-income and under-utilized areas. It helps tremendously in the rural areas.

In my home State of West Virginia, unfortunately, there are still some West Virginians who have to drive to fill up a water tank because they don't have access to safe drinking water. The CDBG program has been critical in funding these safe drinking water and sewer projects to many areas in West Virginia. Through the small cities CDBG fund, West Virginia has invested $80 million over the last 5 years to improve access to clean water and to develop water and wastewater systems. These projects include a safe drinking water project in Buffalo, West Virginia, which provided clean drinking water to over 100 residents.

In my home town of Charleston, West Virginia, this program has provided much-needed help for our senior citizens, for road repairs, and our homeless shelters. The program has produced results, and our local governments need this funding to be reinstated so they can continue helping the communities because they need our support.

It was very difficult to find an offset for this. The HOME program has helped a lot of low-income individuals find affordable housing over the past 20 years. However, there have been grave concerns regarding oversight of the program, and HUD has been slow to adapt to many of the recommendations proposed by various auditors, including a GAO audit performed last February. I'm hopeful that HUD will view these cuts in their budget as proof that Congress is serious about oversight and will increase the oversight of the HOME program.

The CDBG program is a vital one, essential to States like mine and those of my colleagues who introduced this amendment. So I ask all my colleagues to support this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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