Toomey Raises Concerns Over HUD Nominees
Highlights Mark Colón’s Documented History of Vitriolic and Profane Attacks on Government Officials
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) today raised concerns over certain Housing and Urban Development (HUD) nominees’ suitability to serve in key leadership positions.
Ranking
Member Toomey expressed particular concern over HUD nominee Mark Colón’s
character and fitness for office given his documented history of making
vitriolic and profane public attacks on government officials.
Nominees
appearing before the Committee today included: Mark Colon, nominee for HUD
Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development; Arthur Jemison,
nominee for HUD Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing; Alanna
McCargo, nominee for President of Ginnie Mae; and Matthew Axelrod, nominee for
Commerce Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement.
Ranking Member Toomey’s opening remarks, as prepared for delivery:
Mr.
Chairman, thank you. And welcome to our nominees.
Mr.
Axelrod has been nominated to serve as Assistant Secretary for Export
Enforcement in the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, or
BIS. BIS determines which U.S. goods are too sensitive to be shipped abroad.
In
the face of China's drive for dominance in key tech sectors, BIS's mission
today is as important as ever. But export controls are only as good as their
enforcement.
Mr.
Axelrod would have the important job of overseeing that enforcement. I expect
him to give his own answers to questions from this Committee, including
questions for the record, in a timely and transparent manner, which is
something BIS nominees have not always done.
Today’s
other nominees would, if confirmed, fill key leadership positions at HUD.
In
response to COVID, Congress appropriated billions of dollars for HUD programs,
in addition to the billions we normally provide for them. In March, the
Democrats’ partisan spending bill sent billions more to HUD.
Now
Democrats are trying to use their reckless tax-and-spending reconciliation bill
to provide more than $300 billion to HUD. Unfortunately, based on their
records, I’m concerned that today’s nominees may be ill-suited to be good
stewards of these taxpayer dollars.
Ms.
McCargo has been nominated to serve as the President of Ginnie Mae. After the
2008 financial crisis, she was responsible at Fannie Mae for implementing the
Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, which was intended to help
borrowers avoid foreclosure.
HAMP
was beset with challenges. A special Inspector General found that a significant
share of borrowers in HAMP—people who had already defaulted because they
couldn’t afford their initial mortgage—received loan modifications then
defaulted again. And GAO found inconsistencies in how loan servicers interfaced
with borrowers, which GAO claimed could lead to inequitable treatment.
Fast
forward to today. Ginnie Mae recently rolled out a proposal to help borrowers
by transitioning them from COVID-related mortgage forbearance into loan
modifications for up to 40 years. Ms. McCargo has endorsed this idea.
If
confirmed, Ms. McCargo will need to be vigilant to ensure the challenges that
HAMP faced do not reappear for borrowers—and taxpayers—with this latest
taxpayer-backed scheme to subsidize certain people’s mortgages.
Mr.
Jemison has been nominated to serve as the Assistant Secretary responsible for
public housing and Indian housing. For almost seven years, he worked on housing
issues for Detroit, a city so chronically mismanaged that it had to file for
bankruptcy in 2013.
Under
Mr. Jemison’s leadership, Detroit often failed to revitalize blighted homes and
neighborhoods on time as promised. Amazingly, city officials admitted that they
set aggressive construction timelines without any data to support them.
Mr.
Jemison’s track record in Detroit is concerning because Democrats and the White
House want to spend $80 billion more on public housing in their reckless
tax-and-spend reconciliation bill. If confirmed, Mr. Jemison, would lead HUD’s
public housing office, which would be responsible for this enormous amount of
money.
Our
last nominee today, Mr. Colon, has a particularly concerning record. He’s had
senior management roles at New York housing agencies that have been rife with
problems—from project delays to ignoring ever-increasing tenant
complaints—according to independent auditors.
These
failures, which occurred under Mr. Colon’s watch, give me no confidence that he
would be a good steward of taxpayer dollars at HUD. However, what’s even more
troubling about Mr. Colon’s record is his history of using Twitter to engage in
vitriolic and profane attacks on his political opponents.
Over
the years, he’s repeatedly mocked and attacked—by name—our Senate colleagues.
He’s ridiculed Senator Manchin. He referred to Senators Collins and other
Republicans as “clowns.” Senator Graham as “Senator Snagglepuss” and “#SenatorShameless,”
Senator Rubio as “Senator Jellyfish,” Senator Paul as spineless, Senator
McConnell as “MassacreMitch” and “Moscow Mitch.”
He’s
endorsed the slanderous claim that Republican Senators, including members of
this Committee, were “Russian stooges” for traveling there on a CODEL. And he’s
gone on profanity-laced tirades about President Trump. This is just a small
selection.
Unfortunately,
we don’t know the full extent of Mr. Colon’s statements because he deleted some
of them before being nominated. I asked him to try to recover his deleted
tweets from Twitter. But he refused to comply with this reasonable request. It
makes you wonder, what does he have to hide?
The
statements we do have from Mr. Colon are more than sufficient to demonstrate
that he lacks the judgment and temperament to serve in a senior leadership
position at HUD. Frankly, I’m shocked and disappointed that the Biden
administration did not withdraw his nomination months ago after his statements
were uncovered.
Thank
you, Mr. Chairman.
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