Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has declined to testify before the House DOGE subcommittee about more than $1 billion in federal homelessness dollars funneled to a scandal-plagued city agency, and her only explanation is that she's "not available."
The subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Tim Burchett and operating under Rep. James Comer's (R-KY) House Government Reform Committee, demanded Bass appear in Washington on September 15 to answer questions about alleged waste, fraud, and abuse at the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. Bass's legal counsel, David Michaelson, sent a letter back declining the appearance while agreeing to hand over documents, the New York Post reported.
The letter offered no scheduling conflict, no competing obligation, and no substantive objection. Michaelson wrote simply that "the Mayor is not available on that date" and that his office had "contacted the Subcommittee staff to discuss this issue." That single sentence is the entirety of Bass's public justification for skipping a congressional hearing into how more than $1 billion in federal taxpayer money was spent, or misspent, on her watch.
LAHSA, a joint city-county agency, has received more than $1 billion in federal taxpayer funds since 2021. The money was supposed to address Los Angeles's grinding homelessness crisis. Instead, it drew a federal investigation.
The HUD Inspector General probed LAHSA's handling of those funds and cited alleged "repeated false statements," failures in financial management and internal controls, and inadequate safeguards against conflicts of interest. By June, HUD suspended further federal funding to LAHSA entirely, telling officials they could not receive another dollar until they demonstrated adequate protections for taxpayer money.
A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration's funding cuts in August, finding the action was carried out in an "arbitrary and capricious" manner. But the underlying findings about LAHSA's conduct remain. The city itself slashed LAHSA's budget allocation by 40 percent, down to $496 million, a cut that speaks louder than any press release about confidence in the agency's stewardship.
The subcommittee's concerns are not abstract. The DOGE panel pointed to specific contracting examples that raise serious oversight questions. Among them: former LAHSA CEO Va Lecia Adams Kellum signed a $2.1 million contract with Upward Bound House, the employer of her husband.
Kellum previously told LAist she had recused herself from matters involving her husband's employer. Public records later showed she personally authorized the contract. LAHSA's explanation was that the contract had "inadvertently ended up" in front of her.
HUD investigated the conflict-of-interest matter and eventually closed the case after LAHSA updated its conflict-of-interest rules. Whether those updated rules actually prevented further self-dealing, or simply papered over the problem, remains an open question, one Bass apparently does not want to answer under oath.
The panel also flagged the 1736 Family Crisis Center, which has received more than $36 million in federal grants since 2008, including at least $25 million routed through LAHSA since 2021. The subcommittee's demand letter to Bass covered records dating back to January 1, 2020, and included requests for documents on LAHSA's internal controls, the use of federal homelessness funds, and communications between the mayor's office, LAHSA, the Los Angeles City Council, and the LA County Board of Supervisors.
Michaelson's letter attempted to put distance between Bass and the agency at the center of the scandal. He wrote that "LAHSA has its own executive leadership team and staff who are responsible for day-to-day operations, budget and administration," adding that "the Mayor does not control LAHSA's operation, budget, or administration."
That framing omits relevant context. Bass holds a seat on LAHSA's 10-member board. The city of Los Angeles continues to fund LAHSA hundreds of millions of dollars annually. And the subcommittee's own letter noted that the city and county share "joint responsibility" to oversee the agency. Claiming the mayor has no meaningful role in an agency her city bankrolls to the tune of nearly half a billion dollars is a difficult position to maintain, especially when Congress is asking the questions.
Bass's office did agree to comply with the document requests, with Michaelson writing that "we are commencing the collection and review of records in response to the Subcommittee's request" and would produce them "as soon as possible." The deadline for those documents is September 14, one day before the hearing Bass will not attend.
The subcommittee did not take the refusal quietly. A spokeswoman for the panel told the Post that Bass's decision to stay home was telling.
"It's a shame Mayor Bass is afraid to come testify about her policies that have increased homelessness in Los Angeles and enabled a culture of corruption."
The spokeswoman added that the subcommittee intends to press ahead regardless.
"The DOGE Subcommittee is moving forward with its hearing to expose the corrupt contracting and grant-making by LAHSA, as well as its facilitation of self-enrichment among nonprofits who received taxpayer funds."
Witnesses for the September 15 hearing will be announced soon, the spokeswoman said. The Post reached out to LAHSA for comment and received no response.
For now, the committee's demand letter does not appear to be a legally binding subpoena. Bass faces no immediate legal penalty for declining. But House standing committees and subcommittees hold the authority under chamber rules to compel testimony through subpoenas. A duly issued congressional subpoena carries legal force, and defiance can lead to contempt of Congress proceedings and a potential referral for criminal prosecution.
Whether the panel escalates to a subpoena remains to be seen. Comer's committee has a track record of pursuing investigations aggressively, he led the House GOP's probe into the Biden family's business dealings and the 2023, 24 impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, and his committee has investigated alleged fraud and misuse of federal funds in Minnesota.
Bass's team, meanwhile, has leaned on an 11 percent drop in street homelessness as evidence that her policies are working. But a statistical talking point does not answer the questions the subcommittee is asking, questions about where the money went, who profited, and who was supposed to be watching.
A mayor who oversees a city that sends nearly half a billion dollars a year to an agency under federal investigation ought to have something to say about it. Karen Bass apparently does not, at least not under oath, and not on September 15.
