An anti-Biden political action committee lodged a complaint against firebrand Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), alleging she has improperly benefited from the University of California, Irvine’s “subsidized affordable housing.”
Porter, who previously worked as a law professor at UC Irvine, is continuing “to reap the benefits” of the institution’s housing apparatus despite no longer working there full time, the complaint filed by the Committee to Defeat the President with the Federal Election Commission alleges.
CALIFORNIA REP. KATIE PORTER ENDORSES FORMER RIVAL DAVE MIN FOR HOUSE SEAT
“Once again, woke progressives like Rep. Porter are happy to receive government-funded salaries, benefits, and now subsidized housing for themselves while driving our economy into the gutter and doing everything possible to squelch opposition. Porter should pay her fair share like everyone else,” Dan Backer, counsel to the Committee to Defeat the President, said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
UC Irvine employees are permitted to purchase homes on University Hills, which the institution developed “to provide affordable housing to ‘eligible full-time employees,'” the complaint says. Prices for housing on University Hills are “significantly below the median home price in Irvine and there is a waiting list for this significant housing benefit,” per the complaint.
Porter purchased a home on University Hills during her time at the institution and has been on unpaid leave from UC Irvine since 2019 after she won election for her first term in Congress, according to the complaint. The PAC insists that she continues to benefit from the program.
“In fact, while Porter was being recruited by UC Irvine in 2009, she joined the University Hills waiting list and delayed joining the faculty until housing became available in 2011,” the FEC filing explained. “Thus, although Porter has not been an active ‘full-time’ employee at UC Irvine since 2019, she continues to reap the benefits of subsidized affordable housing in a pricey housing market.”
A campaign spokeswoman for Porter shrugged off the FEC complaint, countering that the congresswoman is being “fully compliant” with federal law.
“Congresswoman Porter is fully compliant with UC policy and precedent, House ethics, and relevant state and federal law. As the university has noted, all faculty on unpaid leave can stay in University housing,” spokeswoman Lindsay Reilly said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
UC Irvine also refuted the Committee to Defeat the President’s characterization of the University Hills as a “subsidy,” explaining that the institution owns the land and leases it to homeowners while restricting resale to curtail prices.
“Katie Porter is a UCI faculty member on an approved leave without pay. Faculty members on approved leaves without pay remain UCI employees, and as such they can maintain their homes in University Hills,” UC Irvine said in a statement obtained by the Washington Examiner. “University Hills does not provide ‘subsidized’ housing, as you put it. … Homeowners own their houses but not the land beneath it.”
The Committee to Defeat the President, which began as the Stop Hillary PAC in 2013, filed the FEC complaint Friday.
“Embroiled in scandals, Rep. Porter needs to be held accountable to American voters, and the Committee will stop at nothing to demand accountability. It’s time to drain the Washington swamp for good, and that starts with calling out left-wing hypocrites like Porter,” Ted Harvey, chairman of the Committee to Defeat the President, said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
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During her tenure in Congress, Porter quickly emerged as a progressive star taking corporate CEOs and others to task during Oversight Committee hearings in which she often wielded a whiteboard to grill witnesses in viral hearings. Porter announced her 2024 Senate campaign earlier this month, preempting incumbent Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) announcement and other speculated contenders.
She has recently taken heat for surfaced messages with a former staffer whom Porter blamed for spreading COVID-19 to her. The congresswoman instructed the staffer not to return to the office and later explained that the staffer was a fellow who was set to leave her office in August 2022.
