U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Patty Murray have called on the Inspector General of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to investigate the alleged delay of disaster relief funding under the Trump Administration. The officials are probing delays in HUD’s Community Block Development Grant Disaster Relief (CDBG-DR) funding to affected communities, which they claim are due to recent changes in the program.
In their communication, Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts and the ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and Murray, a Democrat from Washington and vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, expressed concerns about the management of disaster relief funds. They noted, "At his confirmation hearing, Secretary Turner stated that getting the CDBG-DR funds out to communities was a 'top priority' for him. However, his actions have not matched that stated commitment. The last three months have been marked by chaos, confusion, and poor communication with the people and communities that rely on this funding the most."
The Senators queried whether HUD had conducted an analysis to assess potential delays in fund availability due to eligibility changes. They asked, “What analysis, if any, did HUD conduct on the potential for delays in the availability of CDBG-DR funding as a result of changing eligibility requirements? If no analysis was conducted, why not?”
Warren and Murray accused the Trump Administration of implementing changes to the CDBG-DR program that, they argue, weakened anti-discrimination measures and increased risks of waste and misuse by failing to require proper future disaster risk assessments from the grantees.
This request for investigation came amid reports that the Trump Administration had reallocated community disaster preparation funding and prioritized FEMA funding to states based on political preferences.