ABSTRACT
Federal budget cuts, the most focused-upon component of Ronald Reagan's New Federalism program, are generally assumed to have had negative fiscal and programmatic impacts on recipient governments. According to local analysts, the city's rapid expansion and its lack of experience with large-scale federal programs may have created a need to play "catchup" from the very start of the community development block grant (CDBG) program. Housing and urban development's influence over the city's CDBG program increased during the expansionary period, primarily through its imposition of expenditure rate quotas, its trimester monitoring procedures, and its actual removal of unspent funds from the city. When the CDBG program began to contract, the city's political scene was changing dramatically. The decentralization and deregulation of the CDBG program were viewed positively by the new mayor, community development (CD) director, and upper-level CD staff, who hoped that Houston's CD program would be reshaped in a more manageable form.
