Continuing with The General Welfare in Project 2025, starting with Chapter 15: Department of Housing and Urban Development (p. 503). As expected, P25 opens with a call for delegation of authority to new political appointees, plus transfer of HUD functions to different agencies and/or to the states and local governments.
This department was created in 1965, the year I was born; it has a budget authority of about $72 billion and over 8300 full-time equivalent employees (p. 504). HUD has 20 different offices, most of which P25 thinks should be headed by appointees.
“[T]he reforms proposed in this chapter can help a new conservative Administration … rectify bureaucratic overreach, reverse the expansion of programs beyond their statutory authority, and end progressive policies … (p. 507).” They want an executive order aimed at identifying Chinese ownership of real estate. Also: repeal climate change initiatives and spending, eliminate the new Housing Supply Fund, prohibit noncitizens from living in federally assisted housing, “implement reforms reducing the implicit anti-marriage bias” (p. 509; translation: make it harder for unmarried women to rent housing), reform government mortgage loan policy. “Congress has charged HUD principally with mandates for construction of the nation’s affordable housing stock in addition to setting and enforcing standards for decent housing and fair housing enforcement (p. 510).”
P25 complains that “affirmative race-based policies” are the problem in public housing, and stringent work requirements are the solution (p. 511). The subtext here is that P25 thinks the public housing market, including loans and insurance, should be privatized. They don’t say that; instead they talk about “strong financial operations and reliable reporting,” before recommending a major overhaul that would essentially transfer HUD functions to other agencies like the SBA (p. 512).
Takeaway: This is a weak chapter which gives legislators very little to work with. I personally think progressives should take this expensive bull by the horns and shake it hard. If I sit down and write a Project 2029, it will recommend shutting down HUD entirely, because housing is a local issue and every state has different needs.
We can and should keep a national building standard, because otherwise some states will say “here’s a pile of trash, build a house with it” and that is not good for people.
We can and should keep national laws against discrimination in housing, because otherwise some states will go back to letting landlords openly refuse to rent to Chinese, Irish, Muslims, Black Americans, LGBTQ+ people, or whomever else they personally hate, and that is not liberty and justice for all.
But yeah. This is a department that should be on the chopping block.
Next up: Chapter 16: Department of the Interior. The DOI “oversees, manages, and protects the nation’s natural resources and cultural heritage” including “trust responsibilities for 566 Indian tribes and Alaska Natives (p. 517).” The budget is just shy of $20 billion, with 70,000 employees in roughly 2400 locations (p. 518).
P25 predictably complains about environmental activism and congratulates DJT for reopening fossil fuel extraction operations on federal lands. “[T]he DOI forecasts it will generate more than $19.6 billion in ‘offsetting receipts’ from oil and gas royalties, timber and grazing fees, park user fees, and land sales, among other sources (p. 519).” Most of the money goes to nine bureaus, all of which I’d consider essential, because these really are national concerns.
P25 also predictably thinks oil, natural gas, and coal extraction should be basically unlimited, the environment be damned, and renewable energy research and implementation should be halted. There’s a list of DJT orders they want reinstated (pp. 522 and 524). These have to do with resource extraction but also with waste management, endangered species, and migratory birds.
They want to reassign and relocate personnel, moving staff out of Washington to work more closely with state and tribal governments (no argument here). A 2022 change returning Bureau of Land Management headquarters to Washington is roundly criticized (I’d have to agree, that was dumb).
They want to clean up the BLM law enforcement chain of command, humanely reduce wild horse and burro populations, and complete the transfer of designated Alaska federal land to the state and to Alaska Natives (pp. 527-530; again, no argument). There are other proposals with respect to Alaska that are sketchier. For-profit resource extraction companies have bribed indigenous populations, poor landowners, and local politicians in the past, and they’ll do it again; federal agencies in charge of parks, wildlife, fish and game, navigable waters, etc should not be stripped of authority in Alaska as P25 suggests (p.531).
P25 also wants to repeal the Antiquities Act of 1906 (p. 532), because liberals have used it to create national monuments in the west, and adjust monuments downward where they interfere with resource extraction. Plus, they want to basically stop enforcing the Endangered Species Act (p. 534).
On pages 536-537, P25 blames Biden for everything wrong with the Indian nations. I would be the last to say that the First Nations should have less power than they do now. Progressives should look hard at these specific complaints, look hard at all the federal agencies that serve our First Nations, come up with meaningful, comprehensive proposed legislation to present to all the tribes for comment, and submit the legislation as soon as possible. This is another area where we could really accomplish something, not only in government efficiency and effectiveness, but in actual social justice.
I’m not a believer in “reparations” in the sense of big public apologies and small checks. I’m a believer in remediating the effects of centuries of genocidal racism through meaningful investments.
Takeaway: not everything about the DOI analysis is bad. Obviously, I disagree with drill baby drill. But while a lot of DOI policy needs to be made at the national level, not a lot of the work needs to be done there. Government assets are the property of, and should be used for the benefit of, citizens. So let’s dig into this.