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

Floor Speech

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Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Mr. Chairman, my amendment moves $3 million from the executive offices of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, including the Deputy Secretary's office, to the Office of Field Policy and Management, for a very good reason. The leadership at the Department of Housing and Urban Development has failed my neighbors in Florida under its unsubstantiated plan to remove the on-the-ground, community-based personnel from our local communities and transfer these positions to a single bureaucratic behemoth.

On September 30 of this year, HUD executives plan to move our local community-based HUD professionals to other offices hundreds of miles away. Yet the housing and homeless challenges in my community will remain. Mr. Chairman, Congress was not consulted on HUD's plan. After HUD's plan was leaked, a number of Members of Congress inquired.

So what is HUD's plan? The Deputy Secretary said HUD plans to remove its representatives from the Tampa Bay and Orlando areas, a region of over 6 million Americans, larger than 30 States, and from other communities across the country. I asked HUD's Deputy Secretary, Is this a cost-saving measure? He said, No. I asked HUD's Deputy Secretary, Have you done a workforce analysis so that the HUD workforce is devoted to the areas that need help and the appropriate places at the appropriate numbers? No.

HUD executives have failed to provide any reasonable justification to Congress regarding the closing of 16 field offices, including two in Florida.

Mr. Chairman, I suggest it is not appropriate to concentrate HUD personnel in offices hundreds of miles away from where they're needed. HUD is just asking for higher travel costs and an agency that will be more disconnected from communities.

Today, my amendment cuts the executive office budget of HUD by 25 percent and moves those dollars away from Washington and back to the Office of Field Policy and Management to restore some of the HUD field offices that are being shuttered in 2 months. In moving the dollars out of Washington, my intent is to directly help our homeless veterans and those on the ground working for multifamily housing, Choice Neighborhoods grants, neighborhood stabilization, Hardest Hit, housing counseling, and more.

My State and local communities cannot be served effectively under HUD's plan to stovepipe its personnel hundreds of miles away. Florida has a population of 19 million, and 1.5 million veterans live in Florida, of which about 8,000 are homeless. We have 57,000 people in Florida that are battling homelessness and our foreclosure rate is still too high. Over the last year, Florida has had the most homes--over 103,000--foreclosed upon. California is a distant second. Nearly 9 percent of all Florida homes with mortgages were in some stage of foreclosure.

Communities throughout Tampa Bay have been hit hard by the housing crisis, and the reliable and informed HUD professionals in the Tampa Bay field office have been on the ground helping our neighbors daily. Earlier this year, more than 5,000 notices of mortgage default, foreclosure auction, or repossession were sent across Tampa Bay. Florida continues to have a very high foreclosure rate--and Tampa is no exception.

HUD professionals in my community have been there to help. They have helped us weather the economic crisis. The Tampa Bay HUD office has been critical for many of my neighbors and for community-based nonprofits working to solve the housing and homeless problems.

Mr. Chairman, my amendment simply says that bureaucrats in Washington will have a little bit less to ensure that our communities, including my home of Tampa, Orlando, and other communities across the country, have the professionals in the field that we need to help our neighbors, our veterans, and others with housing challenges.

I would like to thank my colleagues, Ms. Brown of Florida, Mr. Grayson, Ms. Matsui, Mr. McNerney, and Mr. Costa for joining me in cosponsoring this amendment.

I urge a ``yes'' vote on the Castor amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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