Senate panel considers Pilot publisher for HUD post

WASHINGTON

Maurice Jones, publisher of The Virginian-Pilot, encountered no major challenges Thursday in a Senate committee hearing on his nomination to become deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Jones faced questions about what his priorities would be, particularly regarding the agency’s HOME Investment Partnerships Program, known as the HOME program, which was the subject of a Washington Post investigation earlier this year. The newspaper reported that the agency has wasted millions of dollars on stalled or abandoned projects and failed to take action against developers and local agencies that oversee the projects. HOME is the largest federal block grant program designed specifically to create low-income housing.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama, noting that HUD’s inspector general reported that the program has a “pattern of non-achievement,” pressed Jones to clarify how he would deal with the problem.

“The first thing I would do is learn the facts,” Jones said, and “go where the facts take me.”

“My public and private sector work have helped me to prepare for this role,” Jones said in his prepared statement. “And particularly in light of the housing and related economic challenges our country continues to face, which have come down so hard on so many Americans, I can think of no more important time to be at HUD.”

Jones, 47, was one of three presidential nominees interviewed by the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on Thursday. Carol J. Galante, a HUD administrator, is nominated to be assistant secretary of the agency and Thomas Hoenig, a former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, is nominated to be vice chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s board of directors.

If approved by the Senate, Jones would oversee the daily operations of HUD, which has more than 8,500 employees and a $40 billion annual budget.

“Usually, your top challenge to moving any organization to a standard of excellence is having the right people in the right places,” Jones told the senators. “Second to that, you also – in these tough times – you have to make sure the organization is operating as efficiently as possible.’’

The appointment would be a return to government service for Jones, who worked in Richmond for then-Gov. Mark Warner, a Democrat, as his deputy chief of staff and as commissioner of the Virginia Department of Social Services. He also worked for the U.S. Treasury Department during the Clinton administration as special assistant to the general counsel. While at the Treasury, he also served as legal counsel to the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund and as director of the fund.

Warner, now a senator, told colleagues on the committee that when Jones came to work for him as head of DSS, the agency was struggling with issues similar to those facing HUD. “This is a guy we’re lucky to have,” he said.

Jones, a native of Kenbridge in south-central Virginia, joined The Pilot in March 2005. He was promoted to vice president and general manager in January 2006 and named publisher in April 2008.

He is expected to remain publisher during the nomination process and continue to sit on the paper’s editorial board but will not participate in political endorsements.

Jones graduated from Hampden-Sydney College and then attended Oxford University in England on a Rhodes Scholarship. He later received a law degree from the University of Virginia.

A HUD spokesman said the agency hopes the Senate will act on Jones’ nomination before the holidays. If appointed, Jones said he anticipates starting the new job in early 2012.