During a recent hearing before a House Financial Services panel, a representative of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and Housing & Insurance Subcommittee Chair Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) argued that the Rural Housing Service (RHS) should be moved from the Department of Agriculture to HUD.
A focal point of the hearing was a study by the General Accountability Office (GAO) that was very critical of RHS operations. RHS Director Tony Hernandez argued that the GAO findings were not accurate and that differences in who is served by RHS vs. FHA make a merger problematical. He also outlined several steps that RHS is taking to improve its programs, but the committee Chair was not swayed and clearly favors merging RHS into HUD.
We’ll be paying attention to what happens down the road, but this was clearly a shot across RHS’s bow.