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On Thursday, July 15, 2021, at 12:00 p.m. (ET) Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Green and Ranking Member Emmer will host a virtual hearing entitled, “CDBG Disaster Recovery: States, Cities, and Denials of Funding."
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Witnesses for this one-panel hearing will be:
• Carol Haddock, Director, Houston Department of Public Works and Engineering
• Judge Lina Hidalgo, County Judge, Harris County
• Heather Lagrone, Deputy Director for Community Development and Revitalization, Texas General Land Office
• Sarah Saadian, VP of Public Policy, National Low Income Housing Coalition
• Stephen Begg, Deputy Inspector General, Office of the Inspector General, Department of Housing and Urban Development
Overview
In 1974, Congress authorized the Community Development Block Grant program under Title I of the Housing and Community Development Act. For nearly two decades, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has provided recovery funds to areas affected by disaster recovery through the Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program. CDBG-DR appropriations provide funding to communities for longer-term disaster recovery needs that are generally not addressed by emergency relief programs administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Small Business Administration (SBA). More recently, Congress has utilized a similar approach to expressly fund disaster mitigation investments, termed Community Development Block Grant-Mitigation (CDBG-MIT). CDBG-DR and CDBG-MIT are both governed by the CDBG program’s statutory authority and administered by HUD. Funding from these programs ultimately flow to state governments (grantees), which in turn deploy the funds to their localities pursuant to a plan developed in coordination between HUD and the state grantees.
The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, enacted on February 9, 2018 appropriated $4.3 billion in CDBG-MIT funding for the state of Texas after Hurricane Harvey struck Texas and Louisiana, causing at least 68 deaths and unprecedented flooding. Texas Governor Greg Abbot designated the General Land Office (GLO) to administer CDBG-MIT funds on behalf of the state. In May 2020, GLO announced an application process for Texas counties to compete for mitigation funds. Applications for the competition closed October 2020, and GLO announced awards for the first round of more than $2.3 billion in CDBGMIT funding May 2021. GLO’s proposed allocation of CDBG-MIT funding has not yet been finalized.
GLO’s awards rely upon an allocation formula it created that did not award any mitigation funds to Houston, the largest city in Texas, which suffered severe damage during Hurricane Harvey. The formula favored less densely populated areas with less damage over the most impacted and distressed areas (MIDs) with greater population density. These developments have raised questions about whether GLO’s actions in handling this substantial federal appropriation are consistent with Congressional intent, federal fair housing requirements, the terms of the grantee agreement, and the applicable regulations that prioritize funding expenditure within most impacted and distressed areas.
Program Background
Since fiscal year 2001, HUD has appropriated $89.8 billion in CDBG disaster assistance and mitigation funding. Between 2017 and 2019 alone, Congress appropriated over $39.5 billion in CDBG disaster assistance and mitigation funding. One of the national objectives of CDBG is to allow communities and states to use program funds to address serious and immediate public health and safety threats. Accordingly, Congress has used the CDBG framework to provide additional assistance for state and local recovery activities in the wake of presidentially declared disasters through CDBG-DR and CDBG-MIT.
In addition to the CDBG statute and rules, CDBG-DR grants are governed by the language of the relevant supplemental appropriation act, which typically identifies the amount appropriated, the period covered, the eligible uses of funds, and the certifications required for assistance. There is no automatic trigger for when and how much CDBG-DR funding is available in response to a disaster; instead, Congress separately passes each supplemental CDBG-DR appropriation on a case-by-case basis, and as a result, “the program’s availability and timing are unpredictable.” HUD publishes a corresponding Federal Register notice for each supplemental appropriation, establishing the allocation of funds to eligible grantees and describing the rules, statutes, waivers, and alternative requirements that...
Hearing page: [ Ссылка ]
