Is the block grant needed to reduce recaptures of unused voucher funds?
No. In his testimony, Mr. Liu referred to recaptures as a staggering problem that would be eliminated by the block grant, but later in his testimony he explicitly contradicted this statement by acknowledging that the Fiscal Year 2003 Appropriations Bill passed earlier this year solved the recapture problem. His second statement was correct: the reforms adopted in the Fiscal Year 2003 bill make recaptures of the magnitude that occurred in previous years impossible. 2. Would the block grant eliminate errors in determining subsidies for voucher holders? No. It is not clear how the proposed block grant would reduce payment errors, let alone eliminate them. Mr. Liu argued that income rules under the program are too detailed and prescriptive. If Congress wants to simplify these rules, however, it can do so without block granting the program. The same income rules that apply to the voucher program also apply to public housing, homelessness assistance grants, and other HUD programs, so whether
