HUD Choice Sees L.A. Riots as Warning Flare for Cities

President-elect Bill Clinton’s designee to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development said Tuesday that the “thunderclap of violence emanating from Los Angeles” has left him convinced that “our country is in trouble and that we’re running against time.”

Henry G. Cisneros’ appearance before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee seemed more a benediction than a confirmation hearing, as both Democrats and Republicans rushed to lavish praise on the 45-year-old former mayor of San Antonio.

Jack Kemp, who currently holds the housing job in the Bush Administration and who is credited with guiding the agency out of scandal, went so far as to tell the panel: “There is one man who was born to be HUD secretary. It’s Henry Cisneros. Godspeed.”

The committee is tentatively scheduled to vote on Cisneros’ nomination next week, and it is all but certain to sail through.

Cisneros made reference to the Los Angeles riots several times during his testimony, saying that a similar disaster could happen in many cities, “given the right set of circumstances.” Urban America is also falling victim, he warned, to “a withering away process that maybe doesn’t reach the newspapers the way (the Los Angeles riots) did, but it’s equally unacceptable.”

He described himself as “an advocate of the cities, a skeptic of the status quo and a believer in experimentation, federalism and the need to provide people with hope.”

In three hours of testimony, Cisneros exhibited a firm grasp of the intricacies of the myriad federal programs administered by the department and indicated that he hopes to put the department at the center of the Clinton Administration’s domestic agenda.

Cisneros said that his priorities include developing a national urban strategy, putting new focus on housing and overhauling the administration of the problem-plagued agency.

Yet he declined to be specific as senators questioned him about the funding that he would need to accomplish these goals, saying that he hopes his proposals will be included in any economic stimulus package the new Administration puts together.

With latest projections showing the federal deficit even worse than previously thought, it is appearing increasingly likely that Clinton will have to scale back proposals to rejuvenate the economy by increasing domestic spending.

Cisneros added that one of his first orders of business as housing secretary will be to free $2.5 billion of federal housing funds already appropriated by Congress but ensnarled in regulation.