Womack Remarks At FY25 Budget Request For The Department of Housing and Urban Development (As Prepared)

The Subcommittee will come to order. Welcome to our second hearing of the fiscal year 2025 appropriations season.

Today, I would like to welcome the Acting Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Honorable Adrianne Todman, to this hearing on HUD’s fiscal year 2025 budget request. Thank you for appearing, Madam Secretary.

We look forward to hearing from you today about HUD’s request for FY2025 and kicking off the current appropriations process. It is the fundamental job of this subcommittee to complete our work on time, before the end of the fiscal year. I am confident that we can fulfill our task. I hope our colleagues who do not serve on this Committee will be cooperative and help us meet this goal.

Our job as appropriators is to carry out our nation’s most fundamental duty of funding the government. This hearing is just the start of what we are called to do to make this government work for the American people.

Today, we will hear testimony about the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s budget request for $66 billion in discretionary budget authority in fiscal year 2025. HUD also uses mortgage guarantee fees from the Federal Housing Administration to offset its spending. The Office of Management and Budget currently estimates $6.7 billion in offsetting receipts for fiscal year 2025, an increase of $1.2 billion from the fiscal year 2024 receipts score. We must recognize the impact that the health of the housing market and FHA receipts have on this bill every year. In addition to discretionary funds, HUD also proposes over $81 billion in mandatory programs over ten years.

We are certain to face fiscal constraints in putting together our bill this year. This forces us to get back to the blocking and tackling of appropriations, to make sure every dollar is well spent and purposeful. It lets us focus on funding the real needs of the government in a way that is sustainable, justifiable, and works for the long-term fiscal health of our great nation.

HUD’s programs impact every district, from providing rental vouchers to families, to helping first-time homebuyers get a mortgage, to housing veterans who have served our country admirably. HUD programs allow elderly Americans to live with dignity in housing that meets their needs and keep people safe from hazards in their homes. Deciding how to best allocate funding to these important programs is our task as a subcommittee.

One of my priorities on this subcommittee is to stop the runaway housing inflation that impacts not only my constituents in Arkansas but every American. We cannot turn a blind eye to families impacted by rising housing costs, in part caused by choices made by this Administration. I also want to focus today on out-of-control regulations that set up unnecessary bureaucratic barriers. Overregulation limits opportunities and feeds inflation, often without making meaningful improvements in people’s lives.