SALARIES AND EXPENSES

(INCLUDING TRANSFERS OF FUNDS)

Appropriates $1,097,292,000 for salaries and expenses instead of $1,076,800,000 as proposed by the House and $1,087,257,000 as proposed by the Senate.

Of the total amount provided, $530,457,000 is transferred from various FHA administrative funds as proposed by the Senate, instead of $520,000,000 as proposed by the House.

Includes language transferring $35,000 from the Native Hawaiian housing loan guarantee fund account as proposed by the Senate. The House did not include a similar provision.

Includes language providing not to exceed $25,000 for representation expenses, instead of $7,000 as proposed by the House and Senate.

The conferees agree that funds under this account are to be allocated among object classes at the levels specified in the budget justifications. HUD is reminded that any deviations are subject to reprogramming requirements.

The conferees reiterate the concerns expressed in the House report regarding HUD's approach to utilizing staff resources and the continued excessive cost per HUD employee as compared to other Federal agencies. Therefore, modified bill language is included, similar to language proposed by the House, requiring the Secretary to submit a staffing plan to the Committees on Appropriations no later than January 15, 2002. The conferees expect this staffing plan to be formulated based on the Resource Estimation and Allocation Process to match staffing requirements with programmatic responsibilities. The plan should identify staffing levels for each program delineated by headquarters and field offices. The conferees also expect this plan to include strategies to reduce the average salary cost per employee while reallocating staffing to address core mission requirements.

The conferees reiterate the direction included in the House report regarding the annual budget justifications submission.

The conferees reiterate the direction included in the Senate report prohibiting HUD from employing more than 77 schedule C and 20 non-career senior executive service employees.

The conferees note that the inability of HUD to provide useful data on program expenditures and performance has been a deficiency perennially cited by the Inspector General and General Accounting Office (GAO). The conferees remain committed to improving HUD's capacity to disseminate useful information about the performance of HUD programs to improve the ability of HUD and the Congress to assess the effectiveness of programs and more accurately determine resource requirements. Therefore, the conferees expect that HUD's information technology (IT) strategy will prioritize those investments needed to remedy the deficiencies identified by the Inspector General and GAO. Language has been included in various accounts in title II transferring no less than $351,150,000 to the Working Capital Fund (WCF) for the development and maintenance of information technology systems, an increase of $16,850,000 above the fiscal year 2001 level. HUD is directed to provide the Committees on Appropriations a fiscal year 2002 spending plan for the WCF no later than January 15, 2002, consistent with the format of the multi-year IT plan submitted to the Committees on August 22, 2001.

The conferees understand that most of the WCF increase requested for fiscal year 2002 is for the planning and development activities related to the re-competition of the HUD Integrated Information Processing Service (HIIPS) contract. To this point little information has been provided to the Committees about HUD's plans for re-competition of HIIPS and the costs associated with implementation of the HIIPS re-competition. Therefore, HUD is directed to provide a comprehensive report on the strategy, status, and out-year funding requirements for HIIPS prior to the expenditure of any of the increase provided for fiscal year 2002.

The conferees also reiterate the direction included in the House report requiring HUD to submit a multi-year IT plan as part of its fiscal year 2003 budget submission. The conferees request that the Inspector General review this plan and provide its views to the Committees on the ability of this plan to improve oversight and management of HUD programs.

While the conferees do not adopt the language in the Senate report related to the Office of Multifamily Housing Assistance Restructuring (OMHAR), the conferees are seriously concerned with the manner in which OMHAR is currently being managed. The conferees are deeply disturbed to learn that OMHAR, an office which has enjoyed a unique amount of autonomy in the management of its staffing and the allocation of its funds, has violated the Anti-Deficiency Act in two out of the three years of its existence. As troubling to the conferees is the fact that the Committees on Appropriations were not notified of these violations sooner. The conferees fully intend to investigate the circumstances that led to these violations, and will take action at the appropriate time. In the interim, the Department is directed to revoke OMHAR's funds allotment privileges and provide vigorous financial and management oversight of OMHAR.

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