Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa received a response from the Treasury Department to his inquiry on oversight of the Hardest Hit Fund, meant to help homeowners who suffered during the housing crisis. Amid the poor federal oversight, a Nevada state agency engaged in “widespread waste and abuse in spending” and “abused the Hardest Hit Fund with, seemingly, a sense of entitlement and no appreciation for the fact that it was taking funds for itself from the homeowners the program intended to help,” according to an audit from the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP). Grassley made the following comment on Treasury’s response.
“The Treasury Department tiptoes around its responsibility to ensure that $9.6 billion in taxpayer funding is used effectively to help vulnerable homeowners stay in their homes. Treasury writes the checks and relies on states to spend the money. If states don’t pay attention to whether the money is spent properly, abuse can and does occur, as we saw in Nevada. This is unacceptable for both homeowners who were supposed to be helped by this program and the taxpayers. SIGTARP and the Government Accountability Office are right to conduct oversight and fill the void left by the Treasury Department.”
