[Senate Hearing 113-464]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 113-464
NOMINATION OF NANI A. COLORETTI
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON
BANKING,HOUSING,AND URBAN AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
ON
THE NOMINATION OF NANI A. COLORETTI TO BE DEPUTY SECRETARY OF THE
DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
__________
APRIL 8, 2014
__________
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COMMITTEE ON BANKING, HOUSING, AND URBAN AFFAIRS
TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota, Chairman
JACK REED, Rhode Island MIKE CRAPO, Idaho
CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama
ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey BOB CORKER, Tennessee
SHERROD BROWN, Ohio DAVID VITTER, Louisiana
JON TESTER, Montana MIKE JOHANNS, Nebraska
MARK R. WARNER, Virginia PATRICK J. TOOMEY, Pennsylvania
JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon MARK KIRK, Illinois
KAY HAGAN, North Carolina JERRY MORAN, Kansas
JOE MANCHIN III, West Virginia TOM COBURN, Oklahoma
ELIZABETH WARREN, Massachusetts DEAN HELLER, Nevada
HEIDI HEITKAMP, North Dakota
Charles Yi, Staff Director
Gregg Richard, Republican Staff Director
Laura Swanson, Deputy Staff Director
Brian Filipowich, Professional Staff Member
Erin Barry Fuher, Professional Staff Member
Greg Dean, Republican Chief Counsel
Chad Davis, Republican Professional Staff Member
Dawn Ratliff, Chief Clerk
Taylor Reed, Hearing Clerk
Shelvin Simmons, IT Director
Jim Crowell, Editor
(ii)
C O N T E N T S
----------
TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 2014
Page
Opening statement of Chairman Johnson............................ 1
Opening statements, comments, or prepared statements of:
Senator Crapo................................................ 1
Senator Warren............................................... 2
NOMINEE
Nani A. Coloretti, to be Deputy Secretary of the Department of
Housing and Urban Development.................................. 3
Prepared statement........................................... 10
Biographical sketch of nominee............................... 12
(iii)
NOMINATION OF NANI A. COLORETTI TO BE DEPUTY SECRETARY OF THE
DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
----------
TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 2014
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met at 10:05 a.m., in room SD-538, Dirksen
Senate Office Building, Hon. Tim Johnson, Chairman of the
Committee, presiding.
OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN TIM JOHNSON
Chairman Johnson. I gavel this hearing to order to order.
Today we consider the nomination of Ms. Nani Coloretti to
be Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development. The HUD Deputy Secretary is a critical component
of the agency's management team, overseeing the budget for
HUD's programs that provide affordable rental housing,
community development, opportunities, and an opportunity for
all credit-worthy families to achieve the dream of home
ownership. I believe Ms. Coloretti has the skills and
experience necessary to take on this role.
The nominee is currently the Assistant Secretary for
Management at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Prior to
joining Treasury, she held positions at the San Francisco
Mayor's office; the San Francisco Department of Children,
Youth, and Their Families; and the U.S. Office of Management
and Budget. She is also a recipient of the National Public
Service Award, the Public Policy and International Affairs
Achievement Award, and the Federal 100 Award.
I believe Ms. Coloretti is an excellent choice to serve as
the HUD Deputy Secretary and I hope that we can move quickly on
her nomination. I now turn to Ranking Member Crapo for his
opening statement.
STATEMENT OF SENATOR MIKE CRAPO
Senator Crapo. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and welcome, Ms.
Coloretti. Ms. Coloretti has been nominated to be the Deputy
Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
If confirmed, this would make her the second-most senior
official at HUD, and according to HUD, this position would
manage the Department's day-to-day operations, the annual
operating budget, and the agency's 8,900 employees.
In Ms. Coloretti's current role at Treasury, she advises
the Secretary of Treasury on the development and execution of
Treasury's budget and strategic plans, as well as the internal
management of the Department and its bureaus. Prior to this,
she served as the Acting Assistant Secretary for Management and
also the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Management and Budget.
As such, it would seem that Ms. Coloretti possesses the
necessary background to be successful at this role at HUD.
Given this, what I would like most to hear from Ms. Coloretti
this morning is, if confirmed, how she expects her management
style to impact not only the inward operations of HUD, but also
HUD's outward facing interactions with stakeholders, affected
persons, and Congress.
I commend HUD for its work with Congress, especially as it
pertains to our efforts on housing finance reform. Secretary
Donovan and senior members of his staff have spent countless
hours with the Chairman, myself, and our staffs working toward
solutions that we can all support.
Likewise, I commend the Secretary and his staff on their
outreach to this body and advocacy of each of us, ending the
status quo and moving forward with this legislation. It will
certainly take efforts of all of us to successfully implement
the needed changes in this area.
Ms. Coloretti, what I hope you will be able to do, if you
are confirmed to this position, is to spread that spirit of
cooperation throughout all the employees and departments of the
agency. During our questioning, I look forward to you
discussing some examples of where you have had the opportunity
to be a positive influence in that respect.
Thank you again for appearing before the Committee today
and I look forward to hearing more from you. And I thank you,
Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing.
Chairman Johnson. Thank you, Senator Crapo. Senator Warren
will know introduce Ms. Coloretti. Senator Warren.
STATEMENT OF SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN
Senator Warren. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am delighted
today to welcome Nani Coloretti to the Banking Committee.
Before my time in the Senate, I had an opportunity to work at
the Treasury Department to set up the new Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau. By the time I arrived, Nani had already been
hard at work with a team of Treasury employees putting together
the pieces for what would eventually become the Consumer
Bureau.
I had the chance to work closely with Nani at the time and
I got to know her as someone with vision, with persistence,
warmth, dedication, and perhaps most of all, as an operational
whiz. Nani is someone who can take on any challenge, no matter
how big, how complicated, or how difficult, and we had a number
of challenges for her to take on.
Nani is dedicated to Government service and her background
working for the Treasury Department, the city of San Francisco,
and the Office of Management and Budget is broad and deep. I am
very pleased to see Nani nominated for this new role and she
has my strong, heartfelt support for it. HUD will be lucky to
have her.
Chairman Johnson. Thank you, Senator Warren. We will now
swear in Ms. Coloretti. Please rise and raise your right hand.
Do you swear or affirm that the testimony that you are
about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but
the truth, so help you God?
Ms. Coloretti. I do.
Chairman Johnson. Do you agree to appear and testify before
any duly constituted Committee of the Senate?
Ms. Coloretti. I do.
Chairman Johnson. Please be seated. Your full written
statement will be made part of the record. Before you begin
your statement, I invite you to introduce your family and
friends in attendance.
Ms. Coloretti. Thank you so much. Chairman Johnson, Ranking
Member Crapo, Senator Warren, and distinguished Members of the
Committee, it is a great privilege to be here, and I just
wanted to take a minute to introduce my husband of over 15
years, David Goldstein, who I met many years ago at UC-Berkeley
School of Public Policy, and he is a teacher and an education
policy consultant and shares a commitment to public service,
and has also been just a fantastic supportive partner during my
years of service.
We are also proud of our son, our 12-year-old son, Kaleo
Goldstein-Coloretti, who is a committed student and athlete,
but he also composes his own songs, volunteers at the public
library, and reminds both of us to always look on the bright
side.
I am joined here by several colleagues from Treasury and
friends and colleagues from HUD and from other parts of my
life. So welcome to the very sympathetic audience that I have
here.
Chairman Johnson. Ms. Coloretti, please begin.
Ms. Coloretti. Sure, thanks.
STATEMENT OF NANI A. COLORETTI, TO BE DEPUTY SECRETARY OF THE
DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
Ms. Coloretti. I come from a family with a tradition of
community service and one that represents the best of what our
country has to offer. My grandparents on both sides of my
family were immigrants from three different countries, the
Phillippines, Italy, and Spain, and they all came to America in
search of a better life. My Filipino grandfather was first a
minister and later a community organizer to address the working
conditions for Filipino workers in Hawai`i's sugar cane fields,
and my grandmother was one of the first in a long tradition of
Filipino nurses.
My mother, one of six children, was also a nurse and later
became a preschool teacher. The tradition of service was
reinforced by my parents' decision to raise their five children
in the beautiful State of Hawai`i. Because Hawai`i is a set of
islands with a diverse population, it is there that I learned
how to listen, how to celebrate differences, and to make space
for others. These values of community involvement and inclusion
directly contribute to my values and my passion for public
service today.
I bring over 20 years of experience in budget, finance,
economic and program analysis, and implementation skills, as
well as over 15 years managing and leading teams to accomplish
better outcomes. Much of my experience has helped deliver
better value for the public by grounding public organizations
in a strong operational context. My work spans the public and
private sectors, and I have contributed to improving outcomes
and increasing efficiency at the local, State, and Federal
Government levels.
My Federal service started just after graduate school when
I arrived in Washington, DC, to join the Office of Management
and Budget as a Presidential management intern. At that job, I
got helpful exposure to Federal budgeting and performance
management, and also learned how to ask the right questions,
and seek ways to invest even while reducing the budget.
I left as Congress passed the Balanced Budget Act of 1997
while creating the State Children's Health Insurance Program. A
few years later, I began a 10-year stint at the City and County
of San Francisco. While there, I helped manage a small
department called the Department of Children, Youth, and Their
Families, and later went on to serve Mayor Gavin Newsom as his
Deputy Policy Director and then as his Budget Director.
At the Department, I led teams that helped children and
youth by partnering with other agencies across the city, the
private sector, and public foundations. For example, we
expanded and enhanced high quality early child care and
education and after-school options by grounding our analysis in
data, consulting with the community, and rethinking how to best
use public funding streams, ultimately adding 3,000 more high
quality child care spaces over a number of years.
At the Office of Mayor Gavin Newsom, I led cross-cutting
teams to implement universal health care coverage and a
citywide wellness initiative, to addition to balancing three
citywide budgets.
At Treasury, I have been fortunate to work for Secretaries
Geithner and Lew and they have both supported efforts to
modernize Treasury systems and structures, even in a time of
diminishing resources. This effort has largely been aided by a
data-driven approach to decision making. Over the last 4 years,
I helped Treasury create and sustain an analytical approach to
management through quarterly performance reviews run by the
Deputy Secretary of Treasury and my position, the Assistant
Secretary for Management.
Through this effort, we have provided visibility into
Treasury's operations for decision making and accountability,
which has yielded over $1 billion of savings and has also
allowed the Department to better complete the merger of two its
bureaus, and also meet some of its priority goals, such as
processing over 95 percent of payments electronically instead
of on paper.
To create a culture of continuous improvement at Treasury,
I focused on operational effectiveness and Government
performance and governance by applying lean principles
developed in the private sector to dozens of process-improving
projects. This work has yielded improvements such as data
reporting efforts that now span hours instead of days.
I have also set up a governance structure to review all of
our IT investments, providing a forum to track cross-cutting
efforts across bureaus, such as the closure and consolidation
of 18 data centers over the last 4 years.
All of this work continues to help Treasury structure
itself for the future. The role of the Deputy Secretary is to
be the chief operating officer, and if confirmed, I will work
under the Secretary's direction to manage the day-to-day
operations at HUD. I will build on the legacy of those who came
before me and did impressive work, including continuing the
transformation of HUD's human resources and financial
management systems.
I am humbled and honored by the nomination and grateful to
the President and Secretary Donovan for asking me to serve the
country in this capacity. If confirmed, I will apply my
experience, energy, values, and passion to build upon the great
work that is already happening and further improve the
effectiveness of HUD. Thank you for allowing me to appear
before you today and I will answer any questions that you have.
Chairman Johnson. Thank you for your testimony. As we begin
questions, will the clerk please put 5 minutes on the clock for
each Member?
Ms. Coloretti, what would your priorities be for HUD as
Deputy Secretary?
Ms. Coloretti. Thank you for that question, Senator. HUD
has recently released, in their strategic plan for FY14 to
2018, a list of top management priorities at the agency. My
priorities would be developed using this as a guide post and in
consultation with the Secretary, but the efforts include things
like transforming their procurement system, grants management,
and human capital management.
If confirmed, I would also support efforts to address HUD's
recent financial audit and significant deficiencies.
Chairman Johnson. The Deputy Secretary of HUD has
traditionally acted as chief operating officer. If confirmed,
do you see yourself playing this role at HUD, and how has your
experience prepared you for this?
Ms. Coloretti. Thank you for that question. If confirmed, I
would continue to be the chief operating officer at HUD, and my
experience at Treasury really helps guide this. Right now I
manage all operational areas of Treasury, including Finance and
Budget, Procurement, Information Systems, and Human Resources,
and it is from this role that I actually work with all the
bureaus to drive efficiency, accountability, transparency, and
improvements at Treasury. So I think that that experience would
serve me well at HUD.
Chairman Johnson. HUD plays an important role in helping
American Indian tribes meet their best needs for safe, high
quality housing. Are you familiar with the housing needs in
Indian Country? If confirmed, do you commit to working with me
to address these housing needs and engaging in consultation
with tribes?
Ms. Coloretti. Thank you for the question. I have not had
the opportunity to work on the Native American issues in the
past. However, I know these issues are very important,
critically important. If confirmed, I will learn more about
these programs and work with you and your staff to ensure that
they are effectively implemented.
Chairman Johnson. In the past, HUD has had issues with its
audits. What steps would you take, as the Deputy Secretary, to
improve HUD's audits?
Ms. Coloretti. Thank you for that question. It is an
excellent question. So first, I would need to learn more about
their material weaknesses and significant deficiencies in the
audit. My understanding is that they have been there for a few
years. My understanding is also that they have some ideas to
transform some of their core financial systems. So that is the
first place I would look.
And then I would identify a set of milestones to
implement--but really, this would be done in partnership with a
chief financial officer who I am hoping will one day be
confirmed as well so that I could get someone to help partner
with me on that work.
Chairman Johnson. Oftentimes, local governments work with
HUD as grantees and partners in housing and community
development efforts. In your experience in the San Francisco
Municipal Government, did you work at all with HUD? How would
your experience working in a local government inform your
decisions as Deputy Secretary of HUD?
Ms. Coloretti. Thank you for that question. As Budget
Director in San Francisco, I got visibility into all of the
funding streams, into the city and county, and my understanding
is that HUD was very helpful in helping San Francisco implement
its Housing First strategy. And part of the reason for that is
because of the McKinney-Vento grant program and other programs
that were allowed to leverage with local dollars to address
some of the Housing First needs to house--to provide supportive
housing to San Franciscans.
So I have had a great visibility into the good work that
HUD is able to do on the ground. Although I did not work with
HUD directly at San Francisco, I know that it is a good partner
for local communities and can really make a difference.
Chairman Johnson. What are some best practices you have
learned in your Government experience that you would apply to
the Deputy Secretary role at HUD?
Ms. Coloretti. One of the key best practices, both that I
have learned at the local government and also have applied at
Treasury is something I mentioned in my opening statement,
which is really a relentless focus on quarterly reviews to
basically track a number of management and operational metrics
and milestones.
That helps both bring visibility to leadership from--in
Treasury, we are organized by bureaus, so from the bureaus, but
also provides a forum to troubleshoot around why a particular
issue, and let us just say it would be a material weakness in
an audit, is either gaining traction or not gaining traction.
That practice is fairly rigorous, but it does yield results
when you focus on outcomes and you focus on those metrics. So I
would hope to bring that to HUD, and I understand they do
quarterly reviews as well. I think I would be able to bring
some of the management suite of metrics that we use at
Treasury. It might help HUD, if helpful, if confirmed.
Chairman Johnson. Senator Crapo.
Senator Crapo. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And,
Nani, you may not be surprised, but I want to talk about GSE
reform. As I indicated in my opening statement, I really
appreciate Secretary Donovan's efforts in this regard, and the
assistance that we have received from HUD in putting together
the legislation that the Chairman and I have recently put out,
the expertise and, frankly, the assistance in working through a
number of the issues has been invaluable.
My main question to you is just to elicit from you your
feelings about how important you feel it is that we move ahead
on this legislation right now, and why--assuming you agree that
we need to move forward on this legislation expeditiously, why
you feel that is necessary.
Ms. Coloretti. Senator, thank you for that question. It is
an excellent question. I am aware of the ongoing bipartisan
housing reform work, housing finance reform work that this
Committee is doing. I am not currently involved in it in my
current position at Treasury. However, I am supportive of the
substantive reform efforts that this Committee is doing and the
ongoing process.
And if confirmed, I would be happy to both engage with you
and the Secretary, obviously, and see if I can be helpful in
any way to this effort.
Senator Crapo. Thank you. I hope that we can get you
confirmed soon so that you can get very heavily engaged in that
effort. We really need that assistance. I also want to talk
with you a little bit about FHA. Recently, some groups have put
pressure on FHA to lower insurance fees, despite FHA's
insurance fund still operating below the minimum capital ratio
that is required by statute to maintain.
Given that this insurance fund is the only protection that
taxpayers have in preventing another bailout of FHA, it would
seem to me that it is important that FHA maintain its legal
obligations and rebuild the insurance fund. Do you agree that
the FHA insurance fund must regain its statutory minimum
obligations before entertaining the idea of any reductions in
the revenue that it collects to insure against those losses?
Ms. Coloretti. Senator, I thank you for that question. I am
not aware of this issue in the detail that you mention, but I
am generally supportive of FHA solvency. I would note that the
President's budget says that FHA would actually not need
another appropriation in the coming year. However, if
confirmed, I intend to learn more about it so we can have a
more in-depth conversation and see if we can work together to
get FHA on solid footing.
Senator Crapo. All right. Thank you. I would encourage you
to pay close attention to this issue because we do not want to
have the budget of the United States kicking in again and
having yet again another bailout of FHA, and I think that its
solvency needs to be managed very carefully. So I appreciate
your attention to that.
I also want to talk to you about transparency in general. I
ask this question in this context: If confirmed, you will
manage the day-to-day operations at HUD. And as such, your
management provides you with the opportunity to instill the
importance of transparency and cooperation by HUD with HUD
stakeholders, with Congress, and others, frankly.
I recently asked a previous HUD nominee a series of
questions related to actions that were brought by HUD, and
specifically, I asked if he believed that a Federal agency
should at least share the analysis that it uses to bring an
action with the entity being accused. Not only did the nominee
decline to indicate support for this basic level of
transparency, but he did not appear to directly answer any part
of my question.
If confirmed, will you work to instill upon those you
manage a culture that fosters more open communication, both
with stakeholders with whom HUD deals, and with Congress?
Ms. Coloretti. Senator, thank you for that question. First,
if I could mention, I do sit on the Government Accountability
Transparency Board, which is comprised of a few departments and
several IGs, and we work together to bring transparency to
Federal financial and procurement data. So I am very supportive
of the concept that more transparency is a good thing.
I am not aware, in any detail, of the issue that you raise,
but certainly if confirmed, I would work with you and your
staff to understand more about it, have a more in-depth
conversation, and see how I could be helpful.
Senator Crapo. Thank you very much.
Chairman Johnson. Senator Warren.
Senator Warren. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The advantage to
being the junior Member on the Committee is that I get to
follow the good and detailed questions of the Chairman and the
Ranking Member.
As I noted in my introductory remarks, you have been
managing and overseeing Governmental agencies for over two
decades, starting at the Office of Management and Budget, and
then at various positions in local government in San Francisco,
and finally as Acting Assistant Secretary for Management at the
Treasury Department.
So you have a lot of experience managing bureaucracies,
large and small. And what I would like to ask you to do is just
spend a minute reflecting on what lessons you have learned from
this range of management experiences.
Ms. Coloretti. Sure. Thank you for that question, Senator.
One thing that I have learned is that--this is going to sound
like a cliche, but it is very important to have the best people
and to have them in the right places and to support them,
because--and you know this. As you go higher up in an
organization, you are doing your work through people.
And so, you are a facilitator of the very best work that
that agency, that group, that team can bring. And that requires
really just understanding your team and being able to deploy
them in the right way and supporting them when they do their
work.
The second thing that I know you also are aware of is, it
is important to understand how to work with the different
systems that support an agency, and I think this is what I can
bring to HUD. In other words, how does the procurement system
work and can you make it better? Can you make that process work
better? Does the financial system do what it needs you to do?
These are sort of the wiring and piping of any
organization, but they really can help programs and policies
succeed if they are both understanding the mission and the
outcomes that are hoped for and supporting them adequately.
Senator Warren. That is very helpful. Thank you. Can you
just give me some insight from your perspective about the
special challenges you think you will face at HUD or the
special opportunities or, let us say, both? Maybe that is even
better.
Ms. Coloretti. Let us call them opportunities.
Senator Warren. OK. Good.
Ms. Coloretti. Thank you for that question, Senator. Like
many Federal agencies, HUD has a fantastic set of very
committed civil servants working very hard every day to do what
looks to be a very difficult portfolio, but important to
communities and to this country. And also like many agencies,
some of its deepest challenges are in its operating systems.
And so, HUD itself has identified these in their strategic
plan that they just released and you do see some of it in their
audit. Some of their biggest challenges are really around their
human capital, both systems and processes and their grants
management and financial management, and those are some of the
things I hope I can help HUD improve.
Senator Warren. Excellent. As I said in my opening
statement, you have my wholehearted support, and if you are
confirmed to this position, I hope that we will be able to work
together to help advance HUD's very important mission. Thank
you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Johnson. Thank you, Ms. Coloretti, for your
testimony and for your willingness to serve our Nation.
I ask all Members to submit questions for the record by COB
this Friday, April 11. Ms. Coloretti, I will ask you to please
submit your answers to the written questions as soon as
possible so that we can move your nomination forward in a
timely manner. This hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 10:31 a.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
[Prepared statements and biographical sketch of nominee
supplied for the record follow:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF NANI A. COLORETTI
To Be Deputy Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban
Development
April 8, 2014
Chairman Johnson, Ranking Member Crapo, and distinguished Members
of the Committee, it is a great privilege to appear before you as
President Obama's nominee to be Deputy Secretary of the Department of
Housing and Urban Development. Before I begin, I would like to
introduce my husband of over 15 years, David Goldstein, who I met many
years ago at UC Berkeley's school of public policy. As a teacher and
education policy consultant, he shares a commitment to public service,
and he has been a fantastic, supportive partner during my years of
Government service and private sector work. We are both very proud of
our 12-year-old son, Kaleo Goldstein-Coloretti, who is a committed
student and athlete but he also composes songs, volunteers at the
public library, and reminds both of us to always look on the bright
side.
I come from a family with a tradition of community service and one
that represents the best of what our country has to offer. My
grandparents on both sides of my family emigrated here from three
different countries: the Philippines, Italy, and Spain, and all came to
America in search of a better life. My Filipino grandfather was a
minister and later became a community organizer to address working
conditions for Filipinos in Hawai`i's sugar cane fields. My grandmother
was one of the first in a long tradition of Filipino nurses. My mother,
one of six children, and was also a nurse and later, a preschool
teacher. This tradition of service was reinforced by my parents'
decision to raise their five children in the beautiful State of
Hawai`i. Because Hawai`i is a set of islands with a diverse population,
it is there that I learned how to listen, celebrate differences, and to
make space for others. These values of community involvement and
inclusion directly contribute to my passion for public service today.
I bring over 20 years of experience in budget, finance, economic
and program analysis, and implementation skills, as well as over 15
years managing and leading teams to accomplish multiple outcomes. Much
of my experience has helped deliver better value for the public by
grounding public organizations and programs in a strong operational
context. My work spans the public and private sectors, and I have
contributed to improving outcomes and increasing efficiency at the
State, local, and Federal Government levels.
My Federal service started just after graduate school, when I
arrived in Washington, DC, right out of graduate school to join the
Office of Management and Budget as a Presidential Management Intern. At
that job, I got helpful exposure to the Federal budgeting and
performance management framework and learned how to ask the right
questions and seek ways to invest even while reducing the budget. I
left as Congress passed the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 while creating
the State Children's Health Insurance Program.
A few years later I began a 10-year stint at the City and County of
San Francisco. While there, I helped manage a small department and
later went on to serve Mayor Gavin Newsom as his deputy policy director
and then as his budget director. At the Department of Children, Youth
and Their Families, I led teams that helped children and young people
by partnering with other agencies across the city, the private sector,
and public foundations. For example, we expanded and enhanced high
quality early care and education and after school options by grounding
our analysis in data and rethinking how best to use public funding
streams, ultimately adding 3,000 more high quality child care spaces.
At the Office of Mayor Gavin Newsom, I led cross-cutting teams to
implement universal health care coverage and a citywide wellness
initiative. As budget director for San Francisco, I balanced three
consecutive budgets, the last year being the most difficult since we
faced a $575 million shortfall--initially about half of the city's
discretionary budget. I balanced the budget that year by working with
the legislative branch to prioritize core city services, working with
the unions, and managing the city's revenue effectively.
At Treasury, I have been fortunate to work for two great
Secretaries and they have both supported efforts to modernize
Treasury's systems and structures even in a time of diminishing
resources. This effort has largely been aided by a data-driven approach
to decision making. Over the last 4 years, I helped Treasury create and
sustain an analytical approach to operations and management through
quarterly performance reviews, run by the Deputy Secretary of Treasury
and my position, the Assistant Secretary for Management. Through this
effort, we have provided visibility into Treasury operations for
decision making and accountability, which has yielded over $1 billion
dollars in budget savings, allowed the department to better complete
the merger of two bureaus (saving $96 million over 10 years), and
allowed Treasury to more successfully achieve its priority goals, such
as processing over 95 percent of payment transactions electronically
instead of on paper.
To create a culture of continuous improvement at Treasury, I have
focused on operational effectiveness and governance. I helped create a
new Treasury Operations Excellence team, which has successfully applied
lean principles developed in the private sector to improve performance
at Treasury. This work encompassed dozens of process improvement
outcomes--ranging from an eightfold efficiency gain in processing
visitor access requests to the Main Treasury building to improvements
in data reporting efforts that now span hours instead of days. This
work has saved Treasury money and staff time while engendering a
culture of continual improvement. I have also set up a governance
structure to review all IT investments, providing a forum to track
cross-cutting efforts across bureaus, such as the closure and
consolidation of 18 data centers over the last 4 years. Treasury
continues to achieve clean audit opinions with no new material
weaknesses since fiscal year 2009, which is an accomplishment that I am
proud of considering the complexity and breadth of Treasury's programs
and financial systems. All of this work continues to help Treasury
structure itself for the future.
The role of the Deputy Secretary is to be the Chief Operating
Officer, and if confirmed, I will work under the Secretary's direction
to manage the day-to-day operations at HUD. I will build on the legacy
of those who came before me and did impressive work, including
beginning the transformation of HUD's human resources and financial
management systems.
I am humbled and honored by the nomination and grateful to the
President and Secretary Donovan for asking me to serve the country in
this capacity. If confirmed, I will apply my experience, energy, values
and passion to build upon the great work that is already happening and
further improve the effectiveness of HUD.
I thank you for allowing me to appear before you today and will
answer any questions you have.
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