GRASSLEY WANTS TO KNOW WHY FEDS AREN’T ENFORCING THE LAW: Federal law bars fugitives from the law from living, even temporarily, in tax-funded public housing. But an unpublished Inspector General report in 2012 found an estimated 1,300 such fugitives in just one region of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to Ethan Barton of the Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley isn’t buying the HUD IG’s claim the report wasn’t published because of “data problems” when it was completed. The IG also said the report was a draft, despite the fact such status was nowhere indicated on the copy obtained by TheDCNF.

“The HUD Inspector General needs to explain whether the wanted fugitive felon report was final or not and if there are problems with the data,” Grassley told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “And HUD needs to explain why the federal law isn’t being enforced.”

“These discrepancies don’t inspire confidence that the agency has a good handle on wanted fugitive felons in public housing or that the residents are being adequately protected. Inspector general reports should be public with very few exceptions,” he said.

Here’s the really troubling question: If there are 1,300 in one HUD region four years ago, how many are there across the nation today?