Kershaw tonight starting at 8 00 eastern along with Mary Louise Roberts on her book, dday through french eyes normdy 1944 which looks at the invasions impact and its aftermath on france. The dday invasion, tonight here on cspan3. There has been discussion about an appearance before congress. Any testimony from this office would not go beyond our report. It contains our findings and analysis and the reasons for the decisions we made. We chose those words carefully and the work speaks for itself. And the report is my testimony. I would not provide information beyond that which is already public in any appearance before congress. Former special Counsel Robert Mueller is set to appear before two committees of congress. The House Judiciary Committee and the House Intelligence Committee on wednesday july 17th at 9 00 a. M. Eastern. Hell testify in open session about his report into russian interference in the 2016 election. Watch live coverage on cspan3, online at cspan. Org, or listen with the free cspan radio app. Housing and urban Development Secretary ben carson testified before the House Financial Services committee on housing issues and his departments policies. Committee members asked about Affordable Housing programs, the governments handling of mixed immigration status households, lowIncome Housing in rural areas and the departments lawsuit against facebook over allegations of housing discrimination in their ads. Meets will come to order. Thank you for your patience, mr. Secretary, we were just working out how we were going to proceed today. We have a classified briefing thats extremely important that will be called about 1 30 so were not sure how long its going to go. If it goes beyond an hour, we will come back and we will relieve you. If youre prepared to go. We will not ask you to stay beyond one hour. If it is over in one hour, well come back and well continue with the hearing, otherwise, we will let you know and you can make a decision. Is that understood by everybody . Thank you very much. Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare a recess of the committee at any time. Todays hearing is entitled housing in america oversight of the United States department of housing and urban development. I now recognize myself for four minutes to give an opening statement. Today this committee convenes for a hearing to conduct oversight over the United States department of housing and urban development. Our sole witness is dr. Benjamin carson. The Trump Administrations hud secretary. I am very concerned about secretary carsons actions leading hud. Specifically, under his leadership, hud has put forth an outrageous plan that would triple rent for the lowest income households and put 1. 7 million americans at risk of eviction and homelessness at a time we were in the midst of a National Homelessness and Housing Affordability crisis. His most recent proposed budget would cut hud funding by 18 . That Budget Proposal includes the elimination of new funding for the National Housing trust fund and capital magnet fund. Essential programs in place to increase the supply of Affordable Housing. As ive said before, what we need is a Real Investment in Affordable Housing programs, not sense list budget cuts. Under secretary carsons leadership, hud diminished and compromised fair housing protections. Secretary carson has halted the implementation of huds affirmatively furthering fair housing rule which is in part a rule finalized by the Obama Administration that provides communities with greater clarity on how to help break down residential segregation and barriers to fair housing opportunity. Im also concerned by the reports about delays in Disaster Recovery funds reaching puerto rico and delays in a hud office of the inspector general. Inquiry into the matter due to a lo lack of timely cooperation by hud. I was also very troubled by secretary carsons recent cruel proposal to terminate housing benefits for families that include individuals with mixed immigration statuses. Of course, existing law prevents programs from subsidizing individuals with ineligible immigration status. Prorated rental assistance allows mixed immigration status families to remain together while exclusively subsidizing only those family members with eligible status. The Trump Administration proposal puts mixed status families at risk of being evicted, separated and left homeless. Secretary carson, across the board, these actions are inconsistent with huds mission. Instead of helping the hardworking americans and vulnerable families, the agency is in place to serve. The Trump Administration is actively causing harm, striving to make housing less available, affordable, and fair. Today, you will face some tough questions about your leadership decisions and mismanagement of the agency. The chair now recognizes the Ranking Member of the committee, gentleman from North Carolina, mr. Mchenry, for five minutes for an opening statement. Thank you, chairwoman waters. Thank you, secretary carson. Thank you for your service and to the American People and our government. And so hud was created more than 50 years ago by president Lyndon Johnson who intended the new agency to be a major tool in combatting poverty. Rebuilding our cities. And making housing more affordable for all. To that end, hud is involved in several programs including federal, public and indian housi housing efforts. Fair housing and equal opportunity investment. Securitization of federally guaranteed mortgages. And more recently Disaster Recovery efforts. Yet hud also finds itself at a crossroads. It must meet the 21st century expectations of the American People in a 20th century framework with 19th century technology. This is not a recipe for success. Secretary carson did what dr. Carson has done countless times before. While he was a surgeon. He rolled up his sleeves and set to work to find things no matter how big the challenge. And there have been challenges. He has implemented reforms to reduce fraud and abuse in how we finance mortgage mortgages. He reversed a decadelong trend by once again hiring a chief Financial Officer for hud to protect taxpayers and combat wasteful spending. Hud also stood up for housing when it filed suit in 2018 against the new York City Housing Authority for routinely and flagrantly failing to uphold its legal obligations under the Fair Housing Act of 1937. Until hud stepped in, the new York City Housing Authority put real people in harms way. Serious harms way. And then repeatedly misled hud about its wrongdoings. He also took the fight against housing discrimination into the 21st century by scrutinizing digital ads that may have violated the Fair Housing Act and were modernday efforts at redlining. Additionally, secretary carson has worked to promote the private Public Partnership model of advancing social and Economic Prosperity for all americans by chairing the interagency white house opportunity and revitalization council which works to help distressed communitiies stimulate development and entrepreneurship through new tools like Opportunity Zones. Opportunity zones are a welcome addition in our tax code and are having an impact in our communities but will have a much stronger impact in the coming decades. I applaud secretary carson for his efforts to bring muchneeded reform to the agency including modernizing old programs, violating updating regulation, knocking down barriers to individual and local investment as well. Last week, i sent a letter to secretary carson urging his Swift Movement on several pending regulations. Finalizing new rules that reflect topics like fair housing and disparate impact will go a long way to helping local communities and consumers. I welcome you finalizing those rules in a timely manner. The path to reform isnt always smooth. I think there are reasonable questions regarding how hud communicates information and how it handled unprecedented amount of disaster aid it administer. I look forward to hearing the secretarys response to those questions in particular. Like many other federal programs, we must recognize that housing in the 21st century is a partnership between federal, state, and local governments. One that needs to be collaborative for it to be successful. We must do our part to achieve bipartisan results, to help those that are homeless get in sustainable housing. We must do our part to modernize the federal footprint with changes in law. And the executive branch must do its part in changes to regulation to meet these challenges. As secretary carson has said, we must leverage outside public and private investment in addition to federal funds to meet our housing challenges. I concur. And i expect a modernized hud to lead the way toward the future. And with that, i yield back the balance of my time. Thank you. The chair now recognizes, the chair of the subcommittee on housing, Community Development, and insurance, mr. Clay, for one minute. Thank you, madam chair. As we mark the 51year passage of the Fair Housing Act, theres still much work to be done to promote and ensure fair housing in america. In fact, as i noted in a recent conversations, residents in my district, in the community of welston, missouri, are facing the prospect of dislocation and upheava upheaval. Though we have had conversations, i want to make it clear for the record that i fully expect hud to follow through on any and all commitments made and work with my staff and me to ensure that the residents have access to Affordable Housing. And i hope that we can find a solution such as a grant Family Development or usage of section 202 housing, and i stand at the ready to work with hud. And with that, madam chair, i yield back. Thank you. I want to welcome to the committee our witness, dr. Benjamin s. Carson sr. The secretary of housing and urban development. Served in his current position since 2017. Mr. Carson has testified before the committee on previous occasions and i do not believe he needs further introduction. Without objection, your written statement will be made a part of the record. Secretary carson, youre now recognized for five minutes to present your oral testimony. Ranking member mchenry, and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss housing in america. Let me begin with fair housing. In so many ways we cant consider our housing markets healthy unless those markets are also fair. In todays interconnected electronic world, discrimination can take less obvious forms. Thats why i initiated an investigation into facebook and two months ago charged facebook with violating the Fair Housing Act by using its social media platform to encourage, enable, and cause housing discrimination. Using a computer to limit a persons Housing Choices is just as discriminatory as slamming a door in someones face. This year, hud is also placing a special focus on protecting the rights of individuals to feel safe and secure in their homes free from sexual harassment. Turning to Housing Finance, hud oversees 1. 4 trillion in federal Housing Administration mortgage insurance and more than 2 trillion in jennymay mortgagebacked security. Considering huds role in supporting affordable and sustainable mortgage finance, its essential that Housing FinanceReform Efforts take a comprehensive view of the marketplace. President trump recently signed a memorandum directing secretary mnuchin and myself to develop a Housing Finance reform plan. Our plan will ensure that fha and jenny may assume primary responsibility for providing Housing Finance support to low and moderate income families who cannot be fulfilled through traditional journd wriunderwrit. In some markets, were struggling against the strong headwinds of disaster. At the time ive been secretary at hud, this nation has experienced several major disasters. In response, President Trump has signed into law critical emergency funding to support longterm recovery and directed hud to allocate these resources among the hardest hit states. Hud has fully obligated approximately 7. 4 billion through our cdbgdr program. This money can be used today to help rebuild homes, restore businesses, and repair or replace damaged infrastructure. In addition, we have reviewed and approved state and territorial action plans for another 10 billion. Recovering from a major disaster is never easy. I want to assure this committee that hud is doing everything we can to help every grante, accelerate the pace of recovery. No discussion of housing would be complete without discussing the absence of housing. Homelessness continues to be a vexing problem in this country, but im encouraged to report to you that homelessness is not an intractable problem. As a nation, weve managed to cut veterans homelessness in half since 2010. Homelessness among families with children is down nearly 30 . And chronic homelessness is down more than 16 . Another area where i believe we can make a difference is ensuring that hudassisted housing is decent, safe, and healthy. Shortly after i took office, i ordered a wholesale reexamination of how the department conducts inspections of Public Housing as well as private housing under section 8 contract. And were moving quickly to prevent Carbon Monoxide poisoning in hudassisted housing. Regrettably, theres currently no universal federal requirement that Carbon Monoxide detecters be installed in all hudassisted housing. Thats wrong. Whether through regulation or legislation, it is our intention to require working Carbon Monoxide detecters in hudassisted housing, whether state or local law requires it or not. And to assist phas with the purchase and installation of Carbon Monoxide detecters, hud is providing 5 million for this simple lifesaving device. Finally, let me turn to something that is rather obvious to all of us. In many parts of our country, there is an Affordable Housing crisis. The federal government cannot solve this problem alone. Let me tell you about a few things we are doing in hud to find a solution. To date, our rental assistance demonstration has preserved nearly 114,000 units of Public Housing and generated more than 7 billion in Construction Activity to revitalize these units or replace them all together. Were also very excited at the potential for up to 100 billion in Capital Investment and Opportunity Zones made possible by the tax reform spearheaded by President Trump. And hud is proposing a new rule to ensure taxpayersupported Housing Support those who are legally entitled to them. Given the overwhelming demand for our programs, the law requires that we devote ourselves to legal residents who have been waiting, some for many years, to access Affordable Housing. Before i conclude, i want to thank the many members from both parties who have taken time to meet with me during the past two years and who are working every day to find Common Ground in support of safe, decent, and Affordable Housing. The work isnt easy, but nothing worthwhile ever is. Thank you. Thank you very much. I now recognize myself for five minutes for questions. On april 25th, 2018, you unveiled a proposal that would triple rents for the lowest income hud residents. Previously, when you testified before this committee, i explained to you that your proposal, what it would mean for our lowincome hudassisted senior in my district. We would see an increase of 1,015. This would be devastating for him. You demonstrated that you did not fully understand the impact of your proposal when you responded to my question by saying you did not think it was, quote, a typical situation, quote unquote. According to the center, the average rent increase for seniors under your proposal would be 83 or a 30 increase. Dr. Carson, we are currently experiencing an Affordable Housing crisis, but again this year, you proposed the same rent increases in huds 2020 budget request. Cannot understand why you would make a family choose between eating or staying housed.