[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 52 (Tuesday, April 1, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Page S1914]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                      EXECUTIVE CALENDAR OBJECTION

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I intend to object to any unanimous 
consent request at the present time relating to the nomination of 
Katherine M. O'Regan to be an Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban 
Development.
  Every year, the Department of Housing and Urban Development provides 
billions of dollars to public housing authorities but provides little 
oversight for how the money is spent. Many housing authority directors 
are more concerned with padding their own nests instead of providing 
safe, affordable housing for people in need. One way to change this is 
to make detailed spending information available to the general public.
  I will object to Ms. O'Regan's nomination because I have not yet 
received a response to my February 14, 2014 letter to HUD Secretary 
Shaun Donovan regarding HUD's effort to collect Public Housing 
Authority salary and compensation data for calendar year 2013. 
Specifically, I asked when the data would be available to the general 
public on the HUD website and whether it would be available in a 
searchable, standard electronic format.
  This is the second time HUD has requested salary and compensation 
data from the 3100 housing authorities across the United States. HUD 
first requested data for the top five wage earners in August 2011. At 
that time, I requested that this data be made available to the general 
public. HUD stated in a December 2011 letter:

       This information will be posted on a HUD website, 
     consistent with applicable law. We are now in the process of 
     collecting this information for the first time, and expect 
     that it will be posted during the first quarter of the year.

  Despite HUD's pledge, the full set of data has never been posted on 
the Department website. Instead, it only posted three pages of 
aggregate data in June 2012, and HUD didn't provide the full set of 
data to my office until May 2013, nearly 2 years after the data 
collection process was initiated.
  HUD is aware of the impact this data can have when made available to 
the public. Shortly after the compensation information was requested in 
2011, Congress imposed a 1 year salary cap for all housing authority 
executives. Housing authorities are now using Federal funding not 
covered by the salary cap to continue paying large salaries and 
compensation packages. The compensation data currently being collected 
would shed light on this practice and should be posted on the HUD 
website as soon as possible.

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