[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 45 (Wednesday, March 10, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1442-S1444]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Nomination of Marcia Louise Fudge
Mr. TOOMEY. Mr. President, I rise this morning to oppose the
nomination of Representative Fudge to serve as the Secretary of the
Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The confirmation of Cabinet Secretaries is one of the most important
constitutional functions we have here in the Senate. I think most of my
colleagues would agree that one of the important considerations is that
Cabinet officials can be relied on to coordinate and work productively
with Congress as they implement the policies of the legislation that we
pass.
I am concerned that Representative Fudge's past rhetoric makes clear
that she lacks the temperament to collaborate with Congress,
particularly across the aisle with Republican Members, and her comments
cast doubt on whether she even wants to.
Congresswoman Fudge has made multiple statements throughout the years
attacking and disparaging the integrity and motives of Republicans with
whom she has policy disagreements. Policy disagreements are entirely
understandable. It is reasonable. They happen every day. They are
expected, especially in a legislative body. But consistently attacking
the integrity and motives of people with whom you have these
disagreements is another thing all together.
In September 2020, during a speech on the House floor, Congresswoman
Fudge attacked efforts to fill Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat on
the Supreme Court. In her speech, she said, among other insults, that
Senate Republicans had ``no decency,'' ``no honor,'' ``no integrity.''
She went on to say, referring to Republican Senators, that we ``are a
disgrace to the Nation.''
In June 2020, during a virtual townhall, Congresswoman Fudge admitted
believing that Republicans did not care about minorities. She said that
if Republicans ``want to save face and let this country know that they
care even a little bit about people of color, which I don't believe
they do, but if they want to try, I want to listen.''
Back in a January of 2013 PBS forum with Tavis Smiley, Congresswoman
Fudge harshly questioned the motives and character of Republicans
again, this time Republicans who supported cuts to the food stamps
program.
Congresswoman Fudge said:
If we continue to send people to Congress who don't even
understand what their job is--who don't understand that
government's job is to take care of its people--then we are
never going anywhere as a country because we deal with nuts
every single day. These people are evil and mean. They care
nothing about anybody but themselves. And so if you think you
are going to have something bipartisan, you need to think
again. It's not happening.
Overtly partisan attacks on integrity and motive simply have a toxic
and detrimental impact on the working relationship that ought to be a
constructive relationship between Members of Congress and members of
the administration. The Senate should really only confirm officers who
are willing to cooperate with legislators, especially now when we have
rapid expansion of many government programs--we just passed a $2
trillion bill that is probably going to pass the House and be signed by
the President--and it is especially true for the administrator of HUD.
In addition to her recent statements impugning the integrity and
motives of Republicans, Congresswoman Fudge has very little or no
housing experience. Except for her service as a smalltown mayor,
Congresswoman Fudge never worked in a capacity where she would be
familiar with any of HUD's many programs. Even traditionally liberal
media outlets criticized
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Congresswoman Fudge's nomination for HUD Secretary on the grounds that
she lacked knowledge and experience in housing policy.
She did not show an interest in developing housing policy expertise
as a Member of Congress, introducing or cosponsoring very few housing-
related bills and choosing instead to serve on unrelated committees. I
acknowledge that not all Cabinet nominees are experts in the policy
areas that their Agencies cover. That is not unusual. But when they
don't have that expertise, it is especially important that their
temperament and their policy views--and their willingness to listen to
Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, especially the other
side of the aisle, is all the more important.
Congresswoman Fudge's views as reflected in her response to questions
for the record are also a matter of concern. When she was asked whether
HUD should better target its programs so that they are actually helping
the low-income Americans they are supposed to help, she responded by
saying, ``The challenge for HUD programs isn't that they aren't
targeted, it is that funding levels are inadequate to meet the need.''
The fact is, funding for HUD spending has grown dramatically in
recent years. That is not even including the $15 billion for COVID
assistance that the Senate appropriated and worked on, and it is not
including the $56 billion for housing assistance passed in the December
omnibus and the reconciliation bill.
The Congresswoman's answer ignores the fact that HUD programs
certainly can be better targeted to help those in need. For example,
families with disqualifying high incomes nevertheless participate in a
number of HUD-assisted rental programs, and that makes housing
unavailable for lower income families for whom it is meant. FHA insures
mortgages for home buyers who could access mortgage credit through
private capital, also thereby making it less available for people who
really need it.
So I worry that Congresswoman Fudge's approach will simply be to ask
Congress for ever more money without being willing to do the hard work
of making the reforms that are necessary and working with Republican
Senators to achieve those reforms. Those reforms are going to be
necessary if we are going to ensure that HUD programs are improved so
they actually better serve the low-income Americans they are meant for.
For these reasons, I cannot support Congresswoman Fudge's nomination.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I appreciate the candor of my colleague
from Pennsylvania and the work that we do jointly on the Committee on
Housing and Urban Affairs.
I ask unanimous consent to finish if I go a bit over and if my
remarks continue into the next section or, potentially, the vote.
Have I said that right, Mr. President?
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Mr. BROWN. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting a dedicated
and talented public servant and great Ohioan, my Congresswoman for the
last 12 years, Marcia Fudge, to be our next Secretary of Housing and
Urban Development. The Presiding Officer served with her in the House
of Representatives and appreciates her.
I can think no one better to lead us out of this pandemic and create
strong communities for the future than Marcia Fudge. When she came
before the Banking and Housing Committee, Congresswoman Fudge's
knowledge and passion for service and her commitment to the people who
make this country work were obvious to all of us, Republicans and
Democrats alike.
After a year when Black Americans endured so many painful reminders
of the yawning gap between the promise of our founding ideals and our
failure to make that promise real for everyone, it is meaningful that
our committee's first nomination hearing featured two African-American
women who will take leading roles in our economic recovery, Marcia
Fudge and Dr. Cecilia Rouse, who has been confirmed already to be Chair
of the National Economic Council at the White House. The Senate
confirmed Dr. Rouse with broad bipartisan support this month.
It matters on so many levels. It is important for our future that
little girls, including Black and Brown girls, see themselves in our
leaders, from the Vice President to Marcia Fudge, to Cecilia Rouse, to
so many people in this Cabinet, including the new Secretary of the
Interior from the Presiding Officer's area of the country. It matters
because of perspectives and life experience these two Black women bring
to these jobs.
Congresswoman Fudge will lead an Agency that supports families and
communities, provides housing and safety to people experiencing
homelessness, and it helps communities rebuild.
Today, HUD is grappling with a housing market where millions of
families find it harder and harder to afford a decent home. New data
out this week confirms that home prices are soaring around the country
even while millions are out of work. Imagine that. The cost of housing
is up, but wages are flat. So many workers have trouble making rent
every month, with the kind of stress that brings and too often having
to turn to predatory loans. The dream of home ownership is increasingly
out of reach for too many families in New Mexico and too many families
in Ohio.
None of this started with COVID-19. The affordable housing crisis is
the product of decades of conscious policy decisions by Wall Street,
corporations, and too often by government. This pandemic has exposed
what millions of families in this country already knew: that for far
too many people, a hard day's work doesn't pay the bills.
Before the United States ever had its first case of COVID-19, one-
quarter--listen to this--one-quarter of all renters of this country
spent more than half their income on housing, on rent. If one thing
happened in their life--their car broke down, their child got sick,
they had a workplace injury that caused them to miss work for a week--
any of those things and their life turns upside down. HUD should play
an essential role in fixing that.
We know that the Black home ownership rate was nearly as low as it
was in 1968 when Senator Romney's father became Secretary of HUD and
the work he tried to do in opening housing in 1969. We have made little
or almost no progress in the Black home ownership rate. I am confident
that soon-to-be Secretary Fudge will change that. She understands the
importance of expanding opportunity to every ZIP Code, allowing more
families to have the peace of mind that brings.
Here is what I know about ZIP Codes. I am in Congresswoman Fudge's
district. My wife and I live in ZIP Code 44105 in Cleveland. That ZIP
Code, in 2007, the first half of that year, had more foreclosures than
any city in the United States of America. I still see the residue, the
remains of what has happened because of all those foreclosures.
Congresswoman Fudge will work to protect our kids from the lead
poisoning that is still all too common in ZIP Code 44105, to restore
the promise of fair housing, and to give communities the help and the
resources they need to thrive.
She brings to the job critical experience, as Senator Toomey said,
serving as a mayor in the industrial heartland for the kind of
community that is either overlooked or outright preyed upon by Wall
Street and big investors.
Even though Senator Toomey said that Congresswoman Fudge doesn't have
the experience in housing, I know up close--I was the Senator during
her entire time in the House. I represented her in the Senate. We live
in the same community. We worked on many of the same projects. She was
helpful on a number of housing issues that I worked on in the Banking,
Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. She understands our communities.
She will lift up the voices of all the people left out of our housing
policy, people who work hard to try to keep a roof over their family's
head, whose hard work never pays off like it should; people who are
just trying to make rent or pay the mortgage every month who just don't
feel like they can keep up. Their wages are flat. Costs go up. Pressure
builds on them.
Congresswoman Fudge has the expertise and tenacity to fight back.
That is why I ask my colleagues to confirm her for Secretary of Housing
and Urban Development.
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