Womack Remarks at Hearing on Inspectors General for the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development

Today, we welcome Brian Harrison, Acting Inspector General of the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Mitch Behm, Deputy Inspector General of the Department of Transportation. Thank you for appearing before us today, and for your service as you lead these two critical offices.

One of our fundamental roles as members of the Appropriations Committee is to make sure that the departments and agencies we support perform their mission for the benefit of the American public. We rely on your offices to assist us in that effort. When you find instances of waste, fraud, and abuse at your agencies, it helps us better refine our appropriations. When you find programs operating successfully, it gives us confidence in continuing our funding for such activities.

While we have not yet received the President’s FY27 budget, I want to highlight the funding we gave your offices in FY26. We provided $113 million for the DOT OIG and $144.5 million for the HUD OIG to ensure you can meet your mission. We look forward to learning about your FY27 needs in the coming weeks.

This hearing comes on the heels of Congress appropriating record funding for many DOT accounts and activities and HUD’s housing programs. As such, the work of the IG remains critical. We can look at your investigations to inform the current work of the Departments. For example, FAA’s air traffic control modernization effort received $4 billion in the final FY26 bill, $1 billion in IIJA funding, and $12.5 billion from the One Big Beautiful Bill. We all have a vested interest in the success of this investment. We cannot repeat the past failures of NextGen, where schedule delays and cost overruns were routine and benefits were not fully realized. 

As another example, the cost of maintaining housing assistance for vulnerable citizens continues to increase, requiring more than $66 billion in FY26, an increase of nearly 6 percent or $3.7 billion over FY25.  We must modernize HUD’s oversight tools to root out fraud and ensure that each dollar goes as far as possible to house Americans who need support. 

I look forward to hearing more about your audits and investigations and getting your insights on where Congressional attention may be needed. With that, I recognize the Ranking Member of this Subcommittee, the gentleman from South Carolina, Mr. Clyburn, for his opening statement.