This week, legislation I introduced to save $1 billion in taxpayer funds will be considered by the full House of Representatives. My proposal, H.R. 861, terminates the troubled Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP). The program, which awards grants to state and local governments to purchase, rehabilitiate, and resell abandoned and foreclosed properties, has had little to show despite the expenditure of nearly $6 billion.

The program has been plagued with problems since its inception. The Inspector General for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has identified multiple misuse of NSP funds, and the Government Accountability Office has said that HUD does not have the proper mechanism in place to keep track of uses of the funds. The NSP has also failed to properly target resources to areas with the most need.

At time when the national debt has surpassed $14 trillion and the federal government is borrowing 40 cents for each dollar spent, it is imperative that we stop wasting taxpayer dollars on such unaccountable and inefficient government programs.