Housing and Urban Development: Comments on HUD's Fiscal Year 2000 Budget Request Page: 3 of 17
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Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:
We are here today to testify on the fiscal year 2000 budget request of the
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). We understand
that the resources available to the Congress to support our nation's myriad
housing and community development needs cannot adequately address all
needs. However, we also believe that the resources the Congress makes
available to HUD should be used as wisely as possible and that HUD'S
programs should reflect a national consensus on the best approaches to
meeting housing and community development challenges. For this reason,
in reporting our work on HUD's budget requests over the past several years,
we have sought to highlight for the Congress program requests from HUD
that either do not provide sufficient justification to enable the Congress to
make a rational choice or do not require new budget authority because of
available unexpended funding provided in prior years.
We have been requested by the House and Senate Appropriations
Subcommittees responsible for HUD to identify areas in which HUD's budget
justification is insufficient or in which unexpended funds might offer the
opportunity to rethink the need for new appropriations. Having received
HUD's fiscal year 2000 budget justification materials only about 2 weeks
ago, we have just begun our analysis. Nevertheless, we have begun our
initial review with a particular focus for this hearing on the proposal's new
programs or initiatives. Specifically, we will discuss (1) new initiatives or
significant increases proposed by HUD and (2) our observations about
HUD's request for funding related to several areas we have reported on in
the past year.
In summary, we will make the following points about HUD's budget
proposal:
* To support 19 new programs and initiatives, HUD is requesting nearly
$731 million of its $28-billion total request for fiscal year 2000. In each
case, the Congress did not provide funding for the activity in fiscal year
1999, although in some cases the program has been funded in prior years.
We are concerned about HUD'S overall capacity to plan for, administer, and
oversee this many new programs, particularly when HUD itself is
undergoing significant organizational reform and when some of the new
initiatives are in areas, such as contracting, in which HUD's performance
has been questioned in the past.
* One of the most significant increases in HUD's current programs for fiscal
year 2000 is a $1 billion increase in its Section 8 rental housing assistanceGAO/T-RCED-99-104
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United States. General Accounting Office. Housing and Urban Development: Comments on HUD's Fiscal Year 2000 Budget Request, text, March 3, 1999; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc289454/m1/3/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.