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HUD officials knowingly failed 'to comply with the law,' stalled Puerto Rico hurricane relief funds

Atomic Kid

Atomic Kid

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HUD officials knowingly failed '''to comply with the law,''' stalled Puerto Rico hurricane relief funds

Two top officials with the Department of Housing and Urban Development admitted at a congressional hearing this week that the agency knowingly missed a legally required deadline that would have made desperately needed hurricane relief funding available to Puerto Rico.

HUD's chief financial officer, Irv Dennis, and David Woll, the department's principal deputy assistant secretary for community planning and development, made the admission Thursday before a House Appropriations subcommittee.

The two told bewildered lawmakers that the agency missed the congressionally mandated deadline to issue a notice that would have kicked off a monthslong process to help Puerto Rico get billions in federal housing funds Congress allocated after Hurricane Maria devastated the island in 2017.

HUD did fail to comply with the law said Rep. David Price, D-N.C., said at the hearing.

The housing agency was supposed to issue funding notices to 18 states affected by disasters on Sept. 4. They published all the notices except Puerto Rico's. The publication of the notice would have allowed Puerto Rico to start drafting a plan that would create the structures needed to manage the much-needed funds.

Two years after Maria, Puerto Rico has received a third of the roughly $43 billion Congress allocated toward hurricane recovery efforts such as rebuilding tens of thousands of homes with damaged roofs, many still covered with blue tarps.
...


Woll admitted that HUD had no statutory authority to miss such a deadline.

Woll and Dennis, in defending why HUD felt compelled to delay the distribution of funds, echoed previous talking points from HUD Secretary Ben Carson, President Donald Trump and other members of his administration in citing "alleged corruption" and "fiscal irregularities" as well as Puerto Rico's capacity to manage these funds."

...

Woll also said that HUD missed the deadline because it was waiting for an audit from the agency's Office of Inspector General into Puerto Rico's capacity to manage these funds and the appointment of a financial monitor to oversee the disbursement of housing funds.

HUD officials have suggested that the audit will include revelations regarding Puerto Rico's ability to manage billions of dollars in housing and disaster relief funds.

However, a letter from HUD Inspector General Rae Oliver Davis to Carson stated that the office never said the audit would have serious or significant findings and did not recommend that HUD should withhold funding to Puerto Rico.

...

So far, Puerto Rico has received only the first $1.5 billion of a total of $20 billion granted through the agency's Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery Program, or CDBG-DR, for infrastructure repairs and rebuilding homes.

Experts have anticipated that the flow of housing funds will be paralyzed until HUD appoints a financial monitor for Puerto Rico.

No one more than Puerto Ricans want oversight, but what we've seen so far doesn't work, Miguel Soto-Class, founder and president of the Center for a New Economy, a nonpartisan think tank, previously told NBC. We don't want punishment disguised as oversight.
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Is anyone else seeing a pattern here? The last bolded sentence in the quote box above. "We don't want punishment disguised as oversight." Really jumps out at me. This Administration used the same excuse of "alleged corruption" to hold up foreign aid funds appropriated by Congress and vetted and signed off on for release by the Pentagon and State Dept to Ukraine to pressure the Ukrainian President them into opening an investigation into one of the President's political rivals. So this Administrations modus operandi here appears to use allegations of corrupt acts, often unsupported, to justify their own corrupt acts whenever it suits their own political self-interests and purposes to do so.
 
Atomic Kid said:
HUD officials knowingly failed '''to comply with the law,''' stalled Puerto Rico hurricane relief funds



Is anyone else seeing a pattern here? The last bolded sentence in the quote box above. "We don't want punishment disguised as oversight." Really jumps out at me. This Administration used the same excuse of "alleged corruption" to hold up foreign aid funds appropriated by Congress and vetted and signed off on for release by the Pentagon and State Dept to Ukraine to pressure the Ukrainian President them into opening an investigation into one of the President's political rivals. So this Administrations modus operandi here appears to use allegations of corrupt acts, often unsupported, to justify their own corrupt acts whenever it suits their own political self-interests and purposes to do so.
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Has the audit be completed?
 
Hmm... isn't amazing how often executive program, agency and/or department "rules" manage to conflict with laws (outlining the basic intentions of congress)? Perhaps it's time for congress critters to do their jobs completely and include the "rules" instead of authorizing huge and complex executive programs, agencies and/or departments to make up these "rules". When "rules" serve as (or substitute for?) laws this is exactly what we the sheeple should expect to get.
 
Mycroft said:
Has the audit be completed?
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Have you read and understood anything past the mention of the audit? Such as. "However, a letter from HUD Inspector General Rae Oliver Davis to Carson stated that the office never said the audit would have serious or significant findings and did not recommend that HUD should withhold funding to Puerto Rico."
 
ttwtt78640 said:
Hmm... isn't amazing how often executive program, agency and/or department "rules" manage to conflict with laws (outlining the basic intentions of congress)? Perhaps it's time for congress critters to do their jobs completely and include the "rules" instead of authorizing huge and complex executive programs, agencies and/or departments to make up these "rules". When "rules" serve as (or substitute for?) laws this is exactly what we the sheeple should expect to get.
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Are you suggesting that the rules and laws that govern his department are too complex for Doctor Carson to understand? Come on now. We all know that this wasn't some innocent unintentional bureaucratic red tape accident. Dr. Carson is simply toting the White House company line.
 
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Atomic Kid said:
HUD officials knowingly failed '''to comply with the law,''' stalled Puerto Rico hurricane relief funds



Is anyone else seeing a pattern here? The last bolded sentence in the quote box above. "We don't want punishment disguised as oversight." Really jumps out at me. This Administration used the same excuse of "alleged corruption" to hold up foreign aid funds appropriated by Congress and vetted and signed off on for release by the Pentagon and State Dept to Ukraine to pressure the Ukrainian President them into opening an investigation into one of the President's political rivals. So this Administrations modus operandi here appears to use allegations of corrupt acts, often unsupported, to justify their own corrupt acts whenever it suits their own political self-interests and purposes to do so.
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Same pattern as has been from the beginning in most every department. Down-right punitive to people of color and people living on lower income.
 
Atomic Kid said:
Are you suggesting that the rules and laws that govern his department are too complex for Doctor Carson to understand? Come on now. We all know that this wasn't some innocent unintentional bureaucratic red tape accident. Dr. Carson is simply toting the White House company line.
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If not, then it should be a simple and straight forward task to point out exactly what specific law, as enacted by congress, Ben Carson (or someone else in HUD) has personally violated. There are simply too many vague "do what we meant" laws that are used to "account for" spending $4T annually.
 
Atomic Kid said:
Have you read and understood anything past the mention of the audit? Such as. "However, a letter from HUD Inspector General Rae Oliver Davis to Carson stated that the office never said the audit would have serious or significant findings and did not recommend that HUD should withhold funding to Puerto Rico."
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I read that, but that doesn't answer my question.
 
Atomic Kid said:
HUD officials knowingly failed '''to comply with the law,''' stalled Puerto Rico hurricane relief funds



Is anyone else seeing a pattern here? The last bolded sentence in the quote box above. "We don't want punishment disguised as oversight." Really jumps out at me. This Administration used the same excuse of "alleged corruption" to hold up foreign aid funds appropriated by Congress and vetted and signed off on for release by the Pentagon and State Dept to Ukraine to pressure the Ukrainian President them into opening an investigation into one of the President's political rivals. So this Administrations modus operandi here appears to use allegations of corrupt acts, often unsupported, to justify their own corrupt acts whenever it suits their own political self-interests and purposes to do so.
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This information should be sent to the relevant law enforcement agency which should pursue the appropriate court case.
 
Gee, didn't Trumps paper towel rolls mollify the Puerto Ricans?

dPON9Awh.jpg
 
ttwtt78640 said:
If not, then it should be a simple and straight forward task to point out exactly what specific law, as enacted by congress, Ben Carson (or someone else in HUD) has personally violated. There are simply too many vague "do what we meant" laws that are used to "account for" spending $4T annually.
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Did you even read the piece? Are you familiar with the term "knowingly"? This was a pretty straight forward and simple Congressional mandated deadline for the department to issue its funding notices for disaster claims. HUD was suppose to publish funding notices for 18 states. They successfully complied with the mandated deadline and published all of them except the one for Puerto Rico. Why do you suppose that was?
 
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Mycroft said:
I read that, but that doesn't answer my question.
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Your question is irrelevant because the department's IG letter to Carson said it didn't see any reason for the audit to hold up the release of desperately needed funds to Puerto Rico.
 
Atomic Kid said:
Your question is irrelevant because the department's IG letter to Carson said it didn't see any reason for the audit to hold up the release of desperately needed funds to Puerto Rico.
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I don't see the opinion of the IG having any bearing. But the actual audit might. The IG isn't the one who makes the decision.

That makes my question relevant.
 
I like Carson's understanding of the situation. Corruption doesn't get fed.
 
Atomic Kid said:
Did you even read the piece? Are you familiar with the term "knowingly"? This was a pretty straight forward and simple Congressional mandated deadline for the department to issue its funding notices for disaster claims. HUD was suppose to publish funding notices for 18 states. They successfully complied with the mandated deadline and published all of them except the one for Puerto Rico. Why do you suppose that was?
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You tell me since you seem to be very knowledgable about the matter. Perhaps you should volunteer to serve as an expert witness.
 
ttwtt78640 said:
If not, then it should be a simple and straight forward task to point out exactly what specific law, as enacted by congress, Ben Carson (or someone else in HUD) has personally violated. There are simply too many vague "do what we meant" laws that are used to "account for" spending $4T annually.
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Funny those laws were just fine until trump the crooks and his merry band of incompetents came to the government.
 
Atomic Kid said:
Have you read and understood anything past the mention of the audit? Such as. "However, a letter from HUD Inspector General Rae Oliver Davis to Carson stated that the office never said the audit would have serious or significant findings and did not recommend that HUD should withhold funding to Puerto Rico."
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Just because they didn't say it doesn't mean it can't be true. An audit to determine if Puerto Rico can manage the funds effectively is exactly the sort of fiscal responsibility we should have an interest in.
 
Praxas said:
Funny those laws were just fine until trump the crooks and his merry band of incompetents came to the government.
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I would imagine that very little turnover in those actually doing the work at HUD has occurred - those folks are likely more than happy not to be assigned that work.
 
ttwtt78640 said:
I would imagine that very little turnover in those actually doing the work at HUD has occurred - those folks are likely more than happy not to be assigned that work.
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Well, that's what happens when you have a turnover and hire lousy people. This only has proven why it's important to you know, actually have people that know their jobs instead of having a priority that you just kiss the ring of this administration and BAM you got a job.
 
Mycroft said:
I don't see the opinion of the IG having any bearing. But the actual audit might. The IG isn't the one who makes the decision.

That makes my question relevant.
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Of course you wouldn't. What else would we expect? Your question remains irrelevant because the IG said the audit should have no bearing on the release of the funds and two of it's top officials admitted before the House Appropriations Committee that the department failed to comply with the law.
 
OpportunityCost said:
Just because they didn't say it doesn't mean it can't be true. An audit to determine if Puerto Rico can manage the funds effectively is exactly the sort of fiscal responsibility we should have an interest in.
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Did read article? No, of course you didn't.

Woll brought up events this summer that led to the resignation of Ricardo Rosselló as governor amid mass protests triggered by political scandals, as well as the island’s decadelong financial crisis, in justifying HUD’s decision to stall Puerto Rico’s funding process.

Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass., stressed that during Puerto Rico’s political unrest no indictments were issued against the island’s housing secretary, Fernando Gil-Enseñat, or the department he leads, known as Vivienda.

Both Clark and Woll agreed that Gil-Enseñat is an “honorable head of housing.”

...

“As the HUD Inspector General’s letter clearly states, HUD officials misled congressional staff about the conclusions of the IG’s review of Vivienda’s capacity to administer disaster recovery funds in an attempt to justify their violation of the law,” Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif., who brought up the letter during the hearing, told NBC News. “This is unacceptable and I fully expect the department to look into why their staff lied to Congress.”
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ttwtt78640 said:
Hmm... isn't amazing how often executive program, agency and/or department "rules" manage to conflict with laws (outlining the basic intentions of congress)? Perhaps it's time for congress critters to do their jobs completely and include the "rules" instead of authorizing huge and complex executive programs, agencies and/or departments to make up these "rules". When "rules" serve as (or substitute for?) laws this is exactly what we the sheeple should expect to get.
Click to expand...
Are you suggesting that the rules are too complex for "the best people" that Trump said he hires? Somehow, those rules weren't too complex for previous administrations. The difference is that prior administrations tried to hire experts in the industry. Trump seems to pick loyalists, whether they know the job or not.
 
Atomic Kid said:
Did read article? No, of course you didn't.
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So believe Torres, and believe that the AG was going to indict a business leader in Puerto Rico that administers aid immediately after a hurricane.

There are multiple holes in the story and its got a lot of spin. I rate this one a wiffle ball.
 
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