Senate Hearings Before the Committee on Appropriations
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S. HRG. 109–330, PT. 7 Senate Hearings Before the Committee on Appropriations Departments of: —Transportation —Treasury —the Judiciary —Housing and Urban Development —and Related Agencies Appropriations Fiscal Year 2007 109th CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION H.R. 5576 PART 7 AMTRAK DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION NONDEPARTMENTAL WITNESSES Departments of Transportation, Treasury, the Judiciary, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations, 2007 (H.R. 5576)—Part 7 S. HRG. 109–330, PT. 7 DEPARTMENTS OF TRANSPORTATION, TREAS- URY, THE JUDICIARY, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, AND RELATED AGENCIES AP- PROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2007 HEARINGS BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION ON H.R. 5576 AN ACT MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE DEPARTMENTS OF TRANS- PORTATION, TREASURY, AND HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, THE JUDICIARY, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, AND INDEPENDENT AGEN- CIES FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2007, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES PART 7 Amtrak Department of Housing and Urban Development Department of the Treasury Department of Transportation Nondepartmental Witnesses Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/index.html U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 27–572 PDF WASHINGTON : 2007 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402–0001 COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi, Chairman TED STEVENS, Alaska ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri TOM HARKIN, Iowa MITCH MCCONNELL, Kentucky BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland CONRAD BURNS, Montana HARRY REID, Nevada RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama HERB KOHL, Wisconsin JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire PATTY MURRAY, Washington ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota LARRY CRAIG, Idaho DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois MIKE DEWINE, Ohio TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana WAYNE ALLARD, Colorado J. KEITH KENNEDY, Staff Director TERRENCE E. SAUVAIN, Minority Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION, TREASURY, THE JUDICIARY, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, AND RELATED AGENCIES CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri, Chairman RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama PATTY MURRAY, Washington ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas HARRY REID, Nevada MIKE DEWINE, Ohio HERB KOHL, Wisconsin SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois TED STEVENS, Alaska BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont CONRAD BURNS, Montana TOM HARKIN, Iowa THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi (ex officio) Professional Staff JON KAMARCK CHEH KIM JOSH MANLEY MATTHEW MCCARDLE RACHEL JONES ELLEN STEIN PETER ROGOFF (Minority) DIANA GOURLAY HAMILTON (Minority) WILLIAM SIMPSON (Minority) MEAGHAN L. MCCARTHY (Minority) RACHEL MILBERG (Minority) (II) CONTENTS THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 2006 Page Department of Housing and Urban Development: Office of the Secretary ......... 1 THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 2006 Department of Transportation: Office of the Secretary ........................................ 51 Amtrak ...................................................................................................................... 84 Department of Transportation: Federal Railroad Administration .................................................................... 88 Office of Inspector General .............................................................................. 91 THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 2006 Department of the Treasury: Office of the Secretary ...................................................................................... 105 Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence .............................................. 123 THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 2006 Department of the Treasury: Internal Revenue Service ...................................... 203 THURSDAY, MAY 4, 2006 Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration ....................... 329 Material Submitted by Agencies Not Appearing for Formal Hearings: The Judicial Conference of the United States ................................................ 371 Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts ........................................................ 383 United States Sentencing Commission ........................................................... 390 Federal Judicial Center .................................................................................... 394 United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ............................... 396 United States Court of International Trade ................................................... 396 U.S. Office of Government Ethics ................................................................... 398 United States Postal Service ........................................................................... 400 United States Tax Court .................................................................................. 403 U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission .................................................. 406 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation .......................................................... 408 Office of Management and Budget .................................................................. 416 Surface Transportation Board ......................................................................... 418 Federal Election Commission .......................................................................... 421 Morris K. Udall Foundation ............................................................................ 424 Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation dba NeighborWorks America ..... 426 Federal Maritime Commission ........................................................................ 433 National Transportation Safety Board ........................................................... 436 Office of Personnel Management ................................................................ 439, 441 U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board ............................................................. 445 U.S. Election Assistance Commission ............................................................. 447 Selective Service System .................................................................................. 453 Nondepartmental Witnesses ................................................................................... 457 (III) DEPARTMENTS OF TRANSPORTATION, TREAS- URY, THE JUDICIARY, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2007 THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 2006 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met at 9:32 a.m., in room SD–138, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Christopher S. Bond (chairman) pre- siding. Present: Senators Bond, Murray, Kohl, Dorgan, and Leahy. DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY STATEMENT OF HON. ALPHONSO JACKSON, SECRETARY OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR CHRISTOPHER S. BOND Senator BOND. Good morning. The Senate Appropriations Sub- committee on Transportation, Treasury, Judiciary, HUD, and Re- lated Agencies will come to order, and it is a pleasure once again to welcome an old friend, Secretary Alphonso Jackson, and extend our sincere thanks for appearing before us today to testify on the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s fiscal year 2007 budget request. Mr. Secretary, we are looking forward to your comments on both the fiscal year 2007 budget as well as HUD’s responsibilities with regard to the overwhelming disaster and rebuilding issues facing the gulf coast because of Hurricane Katrina and related storms. HUD’s budget request proposes some $33.65 billion for fiscal year 2007, a decrease of $621 million, or 2 percent, from the 2006 fund- ing level. Unfortunately, this request does not reflect the true ex- tent to which many important housing and community develop- ment programs are compromised. In particular, because of needed increases to section 8 funding, funding for many widely supported programs, such as CDBG, public housing capital funding, HOPE VI, section 202 for the elderly, and section 811 housing for the dis- abled has been slashed. In addition, the budget includes a $2 bil- lion rescission of excess section 8 funds, which we are waiting to see where and how they would be available, also existing FHA sin- (1) 2 gle-family mortgage insurance program that is marred by a shrink- ing share of the homeownership market, and increased default rates. In addition to the very difficult decisions posed by the HUD fiscal year 2007 budget, the subcommittee will also have to face substan- tial shortfalls in many other accounts, including, for example, a $400 million gap in proposed Amtrak funding, not enough to sup- port Amtrak’s funding needs, and I am not even sure that flat funding would meet the needs in 2007. Another example of the difficult decisions is the administration proposes to cut $765 million from the airport improvement pro- gram, which is critical to maintaining and improving infrastructure in our