1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

I am writing to request a thorough congressional investigation into $21 trillion in unauthorized spending documented at the Department of Housing and Urban Development between 1998 and 2015. This figure comes from a 2017 report by Michigan State University economist Mark Skidmore, who identified massive discrepancies in federal accounting that demand immediate scrutiny. The scale of this issue is staggering. Skidmore's investigation revealed that in fiscal year 2015 alone, the Army had $6.5 trillion in unsupported adjustments, which is 54 times the $122 billion spending authorized by Congress for that department. When similar accounting irregularities were examined across HUD over nearly two decades, the total reached $21 trillion. These are not minor bookkeeping errors but fundamental breakdowns in financial accountability that undermine public trust in government institutions. Former HUD Assistant Secretary Catherine Austin Fitts, who served under President George H.W. Bush, has raised serious questions about where these funds went. While her specific theories about underground infrastructure may be speculative, the underlying financial discrepancies she identified are documented in academic research. The American people deserve answers about how trillions of dollars in unauthorized adjustments occurred without congressional oversight or public accountability. I urge you to use your authority to demand a full audit of HUD's financial records from 1998 to 2015, require testimony from current and former officials who oversaw these budgets, and work with the Government Accountability Office to establish stronger financial controls. If $21 trillion in spending occurred outside normal authorization processes, Congress must determine how this happened, who approved it, and what mechanisms will prevent such massive accounting failures in the future. Transparency in government spending is not a partisan issue. It is fundamental to democratic accountability and fiscal responsibility.