During a House Financial Services Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Al Green (D-TX) questioned Stephen Begg, the Acting Inspector General of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, about the impact of looming staffing cuts at HUD.
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00:00Chairman Yields, the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Green, the ranking member of Oversight and Investigations, is now recognized for five minutes.
00:10Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And friends, for reasons that I shall not announce, I believe the chairman to be an honorable person, and I want to make that a part of the record today.
00:23Mr. Beggs, Begg, excuse me, are there people in this country who engage in invidious discrimination when it comes to housing?
00:39Yes.
00:42And do these people engage in a form of invidious discrimination that would deny a person access to housing because of color?
00:52Yes.
00:53And is there a department within HUD that deals with this invidious discrimination?
01:01Yes, the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity.
01:06And have you heard, sir, that there is a possibility of substantial cuts in personnel in this department?
01:18Yes.
01:19Have you heard a number, sir?
01:21I've seen the reporting, and I think it was mentioned earlier in the hearing, 77% was a possibility.
01:29And if 77% of the persons charged with enforcement are removed from their positions, what would this portend for people who are seeking housing without being discriminated against?
01:48Well, we discussed the already strained capacity in that office earlier, so a significant cut could increase the strain on capacity.
01:58What we would want to see in a plan is how HUD plans do account for that reduced staff, what other tools or alternatives would it use to prevent the capacity from going too low that it can't perform its programmatic function.
02:16You mentioned a plan.
02:18You mentioned a plan.
02:19Have you been presented a plan?
02:20I have not.
02:21If I wanted to know the plan, would it be judicious to ask you or Mr. Musk, if I assume that one of you has knowledge of the plan, which of you would be better to answer the question about the plan?
02:39Well, HUD's in the best position to answer what's in its plan, and it's my understanding that the plan has not been finalized in many respects yet.
02:47But if I wanted to know the plan that Mr. Musk has that you have not been given, would it be better to ask you or Mr. Musk?
02:54I wouldn't be able to speak to the plan, so I believe Mr. Musk.
02:58And if I want to know about the cuts that he has in mind, would it be better to have you tell me or Mr. Musk?
03:06I think the same answer applies, sir.
03:09I think you're right, sir.
03:11And I ask the question because it's my belief that Mr. Musk should be here to talk about the cuts.
03:18There's more involved in this than technology.
03:21We're talking about laying people off in significant numbers.
03:25And I don't think you're in a position to tell us what Mr. Musk plans to do with reference to these layoffs.
03:36I contend that he should come before this committee.
03:40There has been some indication that you should be here or some person in your position should be here on an annual basis.
03:49Well, if Mr. Musk is a temporary employee, he's only going to be on the job about 130 days max.
03:56And then maybe he'll be reinstated at a later time.
03:59But it would seem to me that that temporary employee who has this awesome amount of authority,
04:06he ought to come and sit in that seat and explain what he plans to do to the lives of these people.
04:14I don't ask you to answer anything in response to that or make any comment.
04:19I'm just concerned about the way we're doing business.
04:24I am.
04:26I'm concerned about how we are literally abdicating our responsibility.
04:33I'm concerned about the country.
04:38We should know that a democracy, a republic if you will, but a democracy,
04:45this is a methodology about which you can get people in office.
04:48A democracy is not inexpungible.
04:53It's not invictus.
04:55A democracy is a work in progress.
04:59And every time we allow a chipping away, we are diminishing some aspect of our democracy.
05:07The democratic way to deal with this would be to have Mr. Musk come before the committee.
05:12He knows the answers.
05:14And I yield back.
05:15And I thank you, Mr. Chairman.
05:16Thank you, Mr. Chairman.