Wisconsin’s Own USAID Scandal

The City of Milwaukee's USAID Scandal

When President Trump was elected to a second term in November, an eerie calm settled over the American left. There was no marching in the streets, no torching of businesses, just…silence. Had Democrats finally accepted the will of the voters? Were they finally ready to work with the President or, at the very least, accept that he isn’t Hitler?

Nah, they were just waiting for the right moment to freak out and it turns out eliminating wasteful government spending is that moment.

As soon as Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) identified billions of dollars of pork at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and President Trump announced a pause on all expenditures, Democrats screamed bloody murder.

“Elon Musk is a Nazi nepo baby, a godless lawless billionaire!” shrieked Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley at a protest Tuesday. “We will see you in the courts, in the Congress, in the streets!”

“We will not take this! We will fight back!” echoed New Jersey Congresswoman. “God damn it, shut down the city! We are at war!

All this because Musk suggested that America might want to stop funding transgender operas in Colombia and DEI programs in Serbia? Not exactly. USAID bankrolls untold hundreds of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that not only advance left-wing agendas across the globe but also help to elect Democrats here at home who will keep their gravy train rolling.

This type of noxious self-dealing is hitting even closer to home in Wisconsin. On Thursday, Today’s TMJ 4 reporter Jenna Rae broke a bombshell: The Housing Authority of Milwaukee (HACM) misappropriated $2.8 million in federal Section 8 housing funds to pay its employees and is now teetering on bankruptcy.

Section 8 funds are authorized by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) only to provide rent assistance for a city’s low-income, elderly, and disabled residents. According to an email Rae uncovered, “unreconciled cash balances in the [HACM’s] audits show that since 2019, $2.8M in funds were removed from the Section 8 program to cover agency overhead salaries and benefits in order to make payroll.”

This was never reported to HUD, which found inconsistencies in HACM’s handling of Section 8 funds but could not pinpoint a source. Last January, HUD ordered HACM to outsource the administration of all Section 8 money to a private company, which it did in October.

Two months later, HACM’s director—former Milwaukee Common Council President Willie Hines—abruptly announced his retirement as calls for his resignation and a criminal investigation into his tenure grew louder. Instead, he pulled the ripcord on a golden parachute: The city’s overly generous pension plan guaranteed him a $75,000 lump sum payment and $11,000 a month for the rest of his life.

It now appears that a federal criminal investigation into his actions is necessary. Instead of using federal money to help Milwaukee’s most vulnerable communities afford housing, he was spending it on himself and his employees.

And it seems as though he knew all along that he could enrich himself by working at HACM. In 2014, Hines stunned the city by resigning as Common Council President to take a job as HACM’s second-in-command. On its face, this career move made no sense. Hines was one of the most powerful men in Milwaukee and viewed as the most likely successor to then-Mayor Tom Barrett. Why would he give that up to be a faceless bureaucrat?

Hines had served on HACM’s board for 20 years (most of it as board chairman) and clearly knew what he was doing. So did HUD, which forced him to resign his position because he did not wait the required year after resigning as a board member to accept a paid position with the organization.

Assistant HUD Secretary Sandra Rodriguez expressed her suspicion at Hines’ hiring, informing HACM in a letter that the "process by which Mr. Hines was hired raises a number of questions about the fairness of the competition" and that Hines "does not seem to possess the requisite qualifications, as required by (HACM’s) own job description for the position."

She also noted that Hines was chairman of the HACM board when it failed to comply with HUD’s rules on hiring low-income workers when it accepted Section 3 grants for a 2013 project.

More than a decade later, Hines’ HACM was still flouting federal regulations in what sure looks to be a $2.8 million fraud scheme. Just as DOGE has frozen all USAID outlays, so too must HUD now stop HACM from either taking in or spending a single cent until a full audit of the agency can be completed.

Just as importantly, the FBI must immediately launch an investigation into just how much money HACM was misappropriating and for what purpose. If any of it went to Hines’ lavish $250,000 salary or wages and benefits for his top cronies, they must all face the consequences, no matter how severe.

USAID violated the public trust and is now reaping what it sowed, and so too must a governmental agency that now appears to be the most corrupt in Wisconsin.