Oversight

Community Development Block Grants: the Case for Reform

Date: June 29, 2006
Time: 2:30pm
Location: Senate Dirksen Building, SD-342
Agenda:

Brief Description of the hearing:

The Community Development Block Grant program is a multi-billion dollar public welfare program that has exceptional flexibility compared to most other grant programs. Operated out of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Community Development Block Grants give local officials broad discretion on the use of the funds for housing, economic development activities, social services, and infrastructure.

Critics of Community Development Block Grants argue that while flexibility abounds, the program has insufficient accountability, ambiguous goals, and no standardized outcome indicators. The purpose of his hearing is to review the issues surrounding program formulas, recipient communities, and management of grants within the Community Development Block program. The hearing will also consider aspects of the reform package, the “CDBG Reform Act of 2006,” that was drafted by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and recently delivered to Congress.

Witnesses

Panel 1

The Honorable

Pamela

Patenaude

Assistant Secretary of Community Planning and Development

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Panel 1

The Honorable

Kenneth M.

Donohue

Inspector General

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Panel 2

M.A.

Eileen

Norcross

Senior Research Fellow

Mercatus Center, George Mason University

Panel 2

Cardell

Cooper

Executive Director

National Community Development Association