Lantos Runs HUD Probe With Shrewdness, Courtesy

During the rebellious 1960s at San Francisco State College, a young radical once spewed a string of obscenities at economics professor Tom Lantos. The youth was amazed when his antagonist, instead of responding in kind, turned aside the verbal assault with a dash of dignity.

“I choose to be gracious,” the ex-professor, now a fifth-term Democratic congressman from San Mateo, remembers telling the student, refusing to take the bait.

It is with similar shrewdness and Old World courtesy that the Budapest-born Lantos greets witnesses before his House subcommittee as--week after week--it investigates allegations of influence peddling at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

But those who try to dissemble or shade the truth about their actions discover that behind Lantos’ silken manner is a razor-sharp mind and a tongue to match.

“If HUD were a bank,” he snapped during a recent hearing, “it would be closed by the FDIC.” And, when a Republican fund-raiser protested his innocence on grounds that he lacked political influence, Lantos gibed: “That is about as believable as Elvis’ being seen in a K mart store.”

Working with a tiny staff but with enormous persistence, Lantos has conducted what Democrats and Republicans alike are praising as a model congressional investigation.

In one of the most effective House inquiries in recent years, Lantos’ Government Operations subcommittee on employment and housing has exposed the way high-ranking Republicans and others with political clout received enormous fees from HUD programs intended to aid the poor.

The two-month investigation already has led to House-approved legislation to curb such political favoritism.

And Lantos’ hearings are far from over. The committee is scheduled to hear again from former HUD Secretary Samuel R. Pierce Jr. on Sept. 15 and from Lance H. Wilson, Pierce’s former executive assistant, on Sept. 27. The investigation could continue until Thanksgiving.

Joseph Strauss, a former official at HUD who has received $1.7 million in consulting fees for obtaining federal rent-subsidy grants for developers, learned how Lantos operates when he tried to justify his hiring of former Interior Secretary James G. Watt to help win the federal plums.

When Strauss began reading a letter extolling Watt for his “well-known flair for innovation,” Lantos cut short the self-serving testimony. “This is a very flowery letter,” Lantos said. “You hired him to peddle his influence to get your projects through.”

Startled by this directness, Strauss wilted. “Influence peddling is a pejorative, but, in a sense, the description is correct,” he conceded.

Watt and Strauss at one point had split a $300,000 fee when HUD allocated subsidies for 326 housing units for low-income tenants that provided a developer-client with multimillion-dollar profits.

For the 61-year old Lantos, a white-haired man with a gentle demeanor, the hearings have brought both attention and prestige.

“Tom Lantos is the reason why these HUD hearings are as good as they are,” Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) said in an interview. “He is extraordinarily bright, and he knows how to focus his questions and not lose track of the important issues.”

Shays, a member of Lantos’ subcommittee, praised the chairman for his restraint in dealing with the alleged misdeeds of members of the opposition political party. “The temptation has to be great to make this partisan, but he’s resisted that temptation,” Shays said. “I marvel at his consistency.”

Subcommittee Democrats are equally admiring of Lantos. “He is doing a very good job, methodically and intelligently marshaling the evidence,” Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said. “Tom is very hard working and very fair.”

Former Sen. William Proxmire (D-Wis.), who gained a reputation as a watchdog of the Treasury during his 30 years on Capitol Hill, declared recently that the HUD inquiry has been the best congressional investigation he has ever seen.

The idea for the hearings occurred late in April, according to Lantos, when he read an 800-page report from HUD Inspector General Paul A. Adams about the operation of the department’s low-income rent subsidy program, known as the Section 8 moderate rehabilitation program.

“Tom really sniffed out the scandal,” said Stuart E. Weisberg, staff director of Lantos’ subcommittee. “I told him I thought it sounded like a third-rate burglary.”

Lantos himself was most disturbed when he found out that Secretary Pierce had not been implementing the inspector general’s proposed reforms.

“I did not--could not--imagine how deep and how wide the scandal is. And we still don’t know,” he said in an interview.

The hearings--televised on C-Span and widely reported in the press--have touched a deep chord.

“There’s a tremendous bipartisan atmosphere of excitement about it all,” Lantos said. “People felt good that Congress was part of uncovering and clearing up this mess.”

Lantos felt the response first-hand during a Fourth of July parade in Redwood City, Calif., where he was cheered at every step along the route, and at town meetings he conducted in San Bruno and Belmont in his congressional district.

Although the investigation has required long hours of preparation and up to eight hours of uninterrupted hearings at times, Lantos said he has no regrets.

He recalled that he came to the United States as a penniless immigrant from Hungary in 1947, shortly before the Soviet Union rang down the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe.

He worked his way through the University of Washington and the University of California at Berkeley, receiving a doctorate in economics.

At one time, he said, he got up at 6 a.m. and taught courses at San Francisco State, attended classes at Berkeley and instructed students at two evening schools, then snatched a few hours of sleep before the next 19-hour day.

“So now, sitting at a hearing between 9:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. is a breeze,” he said, laughing. “I don’t consider this a hardship post.”

Before his prominent role in the HUD inquiry, Lantos was best known nationally for his interest in human rights and his sponsorship of a bill to grant honorary American citizenship to Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who helped to save Nazi-persecuted Jews in Europe during World War II.

In fact, Lantos was one of those aided by Wallenberg, who bought apartment buildings in Budapest and flew Swedish flags over them, declaring them diplomatic outposts although they actually were safe havens for Hungarian Jews, including Lantos.

His wife, Annette, was smuggled out of Budapest by Portuguese diplomats to save her from the Nazis.

His subsequent interest in human rights cases made him an early ally of Jack Kemp, then a Republican member of Congress from Buffalo, N.Y. As a result, Kemp, now secretary of HUD, is cooperating fully with the investigation run by Lantos.

“Our friendship has remained very strong,” Lantos said, noting that partisan differences in this country seemed minor compared with wartime Europe.

“When I grew up, the bad guys were the Hitlerites and the Stalinists,” he said. “From my vantage point, we Democrats and Republicans are all on the same team.”