[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 50 (Tuesday, April 1, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H1868-H1869]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       THE HOUSING STIMULUS PLAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, The Politico, a newspaper that is 
published and distributed here in the Congress, has an article today 
about how hard the Democrats are working to address the housing 
stimulus plan that the American people are waiting for.
  In places like Ohio, the mortgage foreclosure rate is at all-time 
highs, and Washington seems to be frozen. There was a program passed 
here that I voted for for housing counseling to try to help workouts a 
few months ago; and then I learned that, in a community as hard struck 
as northern Ohio is, it yielded $60,000. $60,000 in a region where 
hundreds and hundreds of people are losing their homes.

                              {time}  1645

  Washington doesn't seem to be able to match the reality of what is 
happening across this country.
  A newspaper today reports that Senator Chris Dodd from the other body 
stated that ``Congress needs cooperation. This is not a partisan issue. 
Our economy is in trouble. We need people to step up and recognize it 
is Americans that are at risk, and it is America that is at risk.''
  The figures state that in another sign of distressed housing markets, 
home equity dipped below 50 percent, an historic low for our Nation. 
Home mortgage volume fell by 17.5 percent last quarter, and pending 
home sales also are reaching new lows. We know what the reality is. And 
yet today, all the major papers had lead stories about the resignation 
of the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Mr. Alphonso 
Jackson. USA Today reports: ``HUD chief departure a blow to President.
  ``For the first time in President Bush's tenure, one of his Cabinet 
members is stepping down amid a criminal investigation.''
  The article continues: ``The FBI has been investigating the ties 
between Mr. Jackson and a friend who was paid $392,000 by the U.S. 
Department of Housing and Urban Development as a construction manager 
in New Orleans, according to the Associated Press.'' It is quite a long 
story about that resignation.
  And then in the Washington Post, the same sort of story, ``Jackson 
Resigns as HUD Secretary, Longtime Bush Friend is Facing Cronyism 
Investigation.''
  Mr. Jackson announced his resignation yesterday, leaving the Bush 
administration without a top housing official in the midst of this vast 
mortgage crisis which has shaken not just the American economy but the 
global economy.
  The New York Times lead editorial today: ``Put the Housing Back in 
HUD.'' Boy, can we underline that.
  It talks about what a sad commentary it is on the Bush 
administration's low regard for HUD's mission that Mr. Jackson was 
permitted to remain in office for so long. And it points out in 2006, 
an inspector general's report found Mr. Jackson had urged his staff 
members to favor Mr. Bush's supporters when it awarded contracts. And 
more recently, the Philadelphia Housing Authority sued Mr. Jackson, 
charging he had threatened to take away $50 million from that authority 
because its president would not turn over valuable property to a 
developer with ties to Mr. Jackson. He has refused to answer the 
Senate's questions about the matter, and the Times ends with this 
admonition: ``Mr. Jackson's resignation clears the way for President 
Bush to name a top caliber successor, given the seriousness of the 
mortgage crisis.'' It should also be an occasion to reflect on the cost 
of appointing HUD secretaries whose priorities are politics and 
patronage rather than housing and urban development, which was the 
mission of HUD from the very beginning.
  We are celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Kerner Commission 
Report; and as we look at the disaster we are facing in housing across 
this country that demands a national response, to have the major 
official here in our Nation's capital have to step down under a cloud 
of wrongdoing, and to have no one in place, a team of people who can 
really reach out to the American people and help as many of them as 
possible hold onto their largest form of savings, which is their home, 
is an absolute national disgrace.
  It seems like the organizations that are here in our Nation's capital 
aren't really serious about helping the American people to hold onto 
their most prized possession after their family, their home, for 
heaven's sake.
  You really wonder what has been going on inside that administration,

[[Page H1869]]

what has been going on on Wall Street with people walking away with 
tens of millions of dollars in fees, and the American people's equity 
just being washed down the drain.
  I recommend to the President that he go beyond appointing a person of 
high repute to the office of Secretary of HUD and have a strike team in 
the White House that can deal with every region of this country being 
so hard hit in this mortgage crisis.
  Madam Speaker, I will include the articles for the Record.

                   [From the USA Today, Apr. 1, 2008]

                HUD Chief Departure a Blow to President

                           (By David Jackson)

       Washington.--For the first time in President Bush's tenure, 
     one of his Cabinet members is stepping down amid a criminal 
     investigation.
       Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson, a longtime Bush ally 
     from Texas, said Monday he'll leave his post on April 18. He 
     announced his departure on the fourth anniversary of his 
     Senate confirmation.
       The FBI has been investigating the ties between Jackson and 
     a friend who was paid $392,000 by the U.S. Housing and Urban 
     Development Department as a construction manager in New 
     Orleans, according to the Associated Press. Jackson's friend 
     got the job after Jackson allegedly asked a HUD staffer to 
     pass along his name to the Housing Authority of New Orleans.
       Other Bush Cabinet members, such as former Attorney General 
     Alberto Gonzales, have left office under political clouds. 
     But Jackson, 62, is the highest ranking Bush official to 
     depart in this manner. Last June, former deputy Interior 
     secretary Steven Griles was convicted and sent to prison for 
     lying to a congressional panel about the access and favors he 
     gave to lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
       James Thurber, who directs the Center for Congressional and 
     Presidential Studies at American University, said Jackson's 
     resignation is not good news for Bush as he seeks political 
     leverage with Congress and tries to stay relevant during an 
     intense presidential campaign to succeed him.
       ``This is the last thing that he needs,'' Thurber said.
       Separately, Jackson and HUD still face a federal lawsuit by 
     the Philadelphia Housing Authority, accusing Jackson of 
     retaliating against that agency because it refused to turn 
     over land to one of his developer friends.
       Carl Greene, executive director of the Philadelphia agency, 
     told USA TODAY that Jackson ``orchestrated a series of 
     procedural and enforcement actions'' designed to deprive his 
     agency of federal funds.
       Greene said his lawyers still may want to question Jackson, 
     but his main goal is to get the department ``to allow us to 
     continue carrying out our mission.''
       HUD official Mark Studdert said in a March 19 letter the 
     federal government was not retaliating against the 
     Philadelphia agency, but was citing it for not being in 
     compliance with federal law on tenants with physical 
     disabilities.
       Jackson did not mention the federal investigation or the 
     lawsuit during his brief announcement. ``There comes a time 
     when one must attend diligently to personal and family 
     matters,'' said Jackson, without taking questions from 
     reporters.
       The resignation came 10 days after Democratic Sens. Patty 
     Murray of Washington and Chris Dodd of Connecticut urged Bush 
     to remove Jackson, citing ``the clouds of justice Department 
     investigations and reports of an empanelled grand jury'' at a 
     time of nationwide mortgage failures.
       Bush, who flew early Monday to Kiev, Ukraine, issued a 
     statement saying he accepted Jackson's resignation with 
     regret. A friend of Jackson since they both lived in Dallas 
     in the early 1990s, Bush said, ``I have known him to be a 
     strong leader and a good man.''
       In 2006, the Dallas Business Journal reported Jackson said 
     that he rejected a contract with one man who told him he did 
     not like Bush. That led to a report by the HUD inspector 
     general that Jackson told employees to consider political 
     affiliation when deciding contracts. The inspector general 
     said there was no evidence that contracts were actually 
     awarded on such a basis.
       Jackson told the inspector general that the report of his 
     comments in Dallas was not true.
                                  ____


                [From the Washington Post, Apr. 1, 2008]

                    Jackson Resigns as HUD Secretary

                  (By Dan Eggen and Carol D. Leonnig)

       Embattled Housing and urban Development Secretary Alphonso 
     Jackson announced his resignation yesterday, leaving the Bush 
     administration without a top housing official in the midst of 
     a vast mortgage crisis that has shaken the global economy.
       Jackson, a longtime friend and former neighbor of President 
     Bush, departed after the White House concluded he had too 
     many controversies swirling around him to be an effective 
     Cabinet member, several HUD officials said privately.
       Jackson has been accused of favoritism involving HUD 
     contractors for two years, and the FBI and the Justice 
     Department are investigating whether he steered business to 
     friends.
       Several Democratic lawmakers demanded Jackson's resignation 
     last month after he refused to answer questions about the 
     accusations including a lawsuit filed by the Philadelphia 
     Housing Authority against HUD that alleged Jackson and his 
     aides used the department to punish the authority for 
     refusing to transfer valuable property to one of Jackson's 
     friends.
                                  ____


                [From the New York Times, Apr. 1, 2008]

                      Put the Housing Back in HUD

       As relieved as we were to see Alphanso Jackson resign on 
     Monday as the secretary of housing and urban development, it 
     was a sad comment on the Bush administration's low regard for 
     HUD's mission that Mr. Jackson was permitted to remain in 
     office so long.
       Mr. Jackson offered the usual excuse for resigning; his 
     family, apparently, needs to see more of him. It's evident, 
     though that his resignation has something to do with the 
     ongoing investigation of Mr. Jackson for allegedly using his 
     position for partisan politics and to reward friends. Even 
     this administration, with its high tolerance for that sort of 
     behavior, no doubt considered it uintenable--finally--to have 
     such a dubious housing chief when home mortgages are in 
     crisis.
       Mr. Jackson made little impression in either housing or 
     urban development. He did make headlines in April 2006, 
     however, when he boasted that he had taken a contract away 
     because the contractor had been critical of President Bush. 
     ``Why should I reward someone who doesn't like the president, 
     so they can use funds to try to campaign against the 
     president?'' The Dallas Business Journal quoted him as saying 
     in a speech.
       Mr. Jackson later said that he was lying when he talked 
     about awarding contracts for political reasons, but an 
     inspector general's report later that year found that Mr. 
     Jackson had urged his staff members to favor Mr. Bush's 
     supporters when it awarded contracts.
       More recently, the Philadelphia Housing Authority sued Mr. 
     Jackson, charging that he had threatened to take away $50 
     million because its president would not turn over valuable 
     property to a developer with ties to Mr. Jackson. He has 
     refused to answer the Senate's questions about the matter.
       Federal authorities are also reportedly investigating 
     whether he steered housing contracts in New Orleans and the 
     Virgin Islands to friends.
       HUD has a long history of mismanagement and corruption, 
     which has been particularly pronounced in Republican 
     administrations. That is most likely because with rare 
     exceptions, like former HUD Secretary Jack Kemp, Republicans 
     do not seem to believe in the agency's mission. Samuel 
     Pierce, the HUD secretary for all eight years of Ronald 
     Reagan's presidency, defended Mr. Reagan's sharp cuts in 
     subsidized housing. He presided over a department mired in 
     scandals, including ones that led to criminal convictions of 
     several of his aides.
       President Bush consistently backed Mr. Jackson, as recently 
     as last month after Senators Patty Murray, Democrat of 
     Washington, and Christopher Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, 
     called for his dismissal. But questions kept mounting about 
     Mr. Jackson's integrity at a time when his department's 
     Federal Housing Administration has an important role to play 
     in trying to stave off foreclosures.
       Mr. Jackson's resignation clears the way for Mr. Bush to 
     name a top-caliber successor, given the seriousness of the 
     mortgage crisis. It should also be an occasion to reflect on 
     the cost of appointing HUD secretaries whose priorities are 
     politics and patronage rather than housing and urban 
     development.

                          ____________________