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» VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM 31 What are some of the ways that HUD is working to promote and strengthen affordable housing? First and foremost, we are trying to ensure that our programs are effectively and efficiently administered, that we respond to our stakeholders in timely ways, and that we are mindful that the creation of affordable housing involves a number of different pieces, of which HUD is just one, and we have to work to make sure that our piece of that puzzle fits. Trying to address regulatory burdens is a big part of that. President Reagan once said the closest you can come to immortality is to be a federal program. Being a federal rule is pretty close to that. Over time, bad or unfortunate things occur and a new rule is adopted to address them. Fast-forward 40 years into the future and we still have rules on the books involving dropping slugs into payphones. Is that really a crisis out in the world today? e rules never go away. at's a silly example, but there are many rules out there and there's no great incentive to prune them where it's appropriate. Secretary Carson and President Trump have given us clear direction to do that, so we're out working on the hedges to get them back under control. A rule that, on its face and taken individually, is not unreasonable can be- come so when you combine it with a thousand others and you start trying to put those into sequence. You can't do B before you do A. We've been working diligently to identify where there are unnecessary regulatory burdens, to prune those back. Gulliver wasn't held down by one big piece of nylon rope. He was held down by thousands of little strings, and I think that's where we often are from a regulatory standpoint. It's not a few big things—it's a whole lot of little things, and it takes skill and judgment to realize which ones you can do without and which ones are important to ensur- ing integrity in programs. What is one thing you wish that more people understood about what you do? I am very much an outsider to government. I came out of law school and joined a law firm and stayed there for 29 years. at was the only permanent job I had. Even though I had a great deal of interaction with the program side of government, I had not had any experience on the inside. Someone once compared government to an ocean liner, that it takes a while to steer. But it's not really steering an ocean liner—it's steering an iceberg. Much of what's going on is underneath the waterline. People outside the federal government are only vaguely familiar with the patience and effort needed too effect change—even if widely supported. "Gulliver wasn't held down by one big piece of nylon rope. He was held down by thousands of little strings, and I think that's where we often are from a regulatory standpoint. It's not a few big things— it's a whole lot of little things, and it takes skill and judgment to realize which ones you can do without and which ones are important to ensuring integrity in programs." THE LEADER IN DEFAULT SERVICING NEWS Help shape the next issue of DS News. Drop us a line at Editor@DSNews.com.