Legislative Update

VETERANS’ HOUSING BILL PASSES HOUSE

The House of Representatives on June 16 passed HR 403, a bill to expand the supply of housing and related services for very low-income veterans. Sponsored by Rep. Al Green (D-TX), the legislation directs HUD to provide assistance to private nonprofit organizations and consumer cooperatives to expand the supply of supportive housing for very low-income veteran families, makes vouchers available to all homeless veterans, regardless of medical condition, include veterans in public housing planning, and excludes veterans’ benefits from income for purposes of HUD-assisted rental determinations. To access the bill, visit https://thomas.loc.gov.

Posted June 17, 2009

HUD Spending Bill Clears Congress, Signed by President

President Obama on December 16 signed into law an omnibus bill for FY 2010 appropriations for HUD and several other federal agencies. The House passed the legislation on December 10 and the Senate on December 13. This bill is the result of conference negotiations to resolve differences between House and Senate versions. Many HUD programs received increases, and several new initiatives were funded. Replacing the Rural Housing and Economic Development program is a new $25 million “Rural Innovations Fund,” as proposed by the Obama Administration. The USDA spending bill for FY 2010 was signed into law on October 21. The table below has HUD details. For the full legislation, visit https://thomas.loc.gov/home/approp/app10.html.

(a) Proposed new initiatives under CDBG.
(b) Proposed in President’s budget to replace HOPE VI; included in final bill as $65 million demonstration.
(c) Replaced by Rural Innovations Fund under CDBG.
(d) New initiative to combat mortgage fraud.

Updated: December 18, 2009

UPDATE: USDA SPENDING LEVELS SET, CR APPROVED.

Posted: October 1, 2009

STOPGAP SPENDING MEASURE PLANNED

Congress this week is expected to pass a continuing resolution to fund federal programs as the new fiscal year begins. Reports are that the continuing resolution will go through October at least. No FY 2010 appropriations bills have passed in final form for the new year starting Oct. 1. House- and Senate-passed bills to fund USDA and HUD await conference committees to resolve differences. For details of the HUD bill see below.

Posted: September 21, 2009

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SENATE ADVANCES HUD SPENDING MEASURE

On July 30, the Senate Appropriations passed an FY 2010 spending bill for Transportation-HUD. Full details are not yet available, but a Committee statement notes that the bill includes the following funding levels for HUD programs:

• $18.1 billion for tenant-based Section 8 rental assistance
• $8.1 billion for project-based Section 8
• $3.99 billion for Community Development Block Grants
• $1.975 billion for HOME
• $1.875 billion for homeless assistance grants
• $670 million for Native American housing
• $785 million for Section 202 housing for the elderly
• $265 million for Section 811 housing for the disabled
• $320 million for Housing Opportunities for People With AIDs
• $165 million for housing counseling

Full Senate consideration of this bill, HR 3288, will likely occur in September. The House passed their different version of HR 3288 on July 23.

Posted: July 31, 2009

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HUD PROGRAMS BOOSTED FOR 2010

The House Appropriations Subcommittee for Transportation-HUD approved a spending bill for FY 2010 on July 13. Full details are not yet available, but a Subcommittee release shows substantial increases in many HUD programs. Overall HUD spending would rise from $41.5 billion in 2009 to $47.1 billion in 2010. For many programs the Subcommittee increased funding above both 2009 levels and the Presiden’s 2010 request. Further information will be posted on the HAC website after the full House Appropriations Committee acts on July 17. The Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to act on a Transportation-HUD spending bill within the next few weeks. Details of the House bill are below.

Posted: July 14, 2009

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If you have problems accessing any of the material on this page, contact Leslie Strauss at HAC, leslie@ruralhome.org, 202-842-8600.

HUD changes SuperNOFA general section

An April 16 Federal Register notice says some programs may accept applications on paper rather than through grants.gov, with specifics to be provided in forthcoming individual program NOFAs. It does not say when those NOFAs will be released. Other changes include alternative websites where NOFAs will be posted. HAC is monitoring relevant sites daily and will post information here as soon as it becomes available.

HUD Releases General Section and Announces Forthcoming Separate NOFAs, No SuperNOFA, December 29, 2008. The general section published today applies to the programs previously included in HUD’s SuperNOFA. To streamline the application process, the department announced it will issue Notices of Funding Availability for individual programs separately, beginning in January and finishing sometime in June.

Expected timeframes for publication of individual NOFAs are included in the general section.

Additional useful links:

• General Section (needed for all HUD NOFAs)
• Grants.gov registration and renewal information (needed for all programs except Continuum of Care)
• Grants.gov website
• HUD’s SuperNOFA page

Links to Additional Resources

• View HUD’s funding information page.

If you have trouble accessing any information on HAC’s site only (not HUD’s or grants.gov), please contact Leslie Strauss, 202-842-8600.

FY 2009 Appropriations Update for USDA Housing Programs

Information on HUD appropriations
Information on the Administration’s budget proposal for FY 2009
Final appropriations for FY 2008
All bills and accompanying reports related to FY 2009 appropriations are available at https://thomas.loc.gov/home/approp/app09.html.

Update March 2, 2009: Omnibus appropriations bill nears completion. An update on FY 2009 appropriations is available here.

Update October 14, 2008: USDA expected to allocate funds to states by end of October. Funds for USDA RD housing do not start flowing immediately when a Continuing Resolution is signed. An RD source has told HAC that RD state offices should receive their first allocations of FY 2009 funds by the end of October. At that time, the agency will be able to proceed with funding loans that have already been approved.

Update September 30, 2008. President Bush has signed into law a Continuing Resolution to fund most federal programs at FY 2008 levels from the beginning of FY 2009 on October 1 through March 6, 2009. There are some exceptions. USDA Section 521 Rental Assistance would be funded at $997 million, the amount needed to renew all expiring contracts, compared to $482.1 million in FY 2008. Section 502 guarantees would receive as much as needed to cover the same amount of mortgage principal as in FY 2008. The CR also directs HUD to renew all expiring Section 8 contracts.

Update July 30, 2008. On July 21, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a bill for FY 2009 that would reduce funding for Section 514/516 farmworker housing below 2008 levels and would more than double the multifamily Preservation Revolving Loan Fund. Details are provided in the table below. The bill is available at https://thomas.loc.gov/home/approp/app09.html.

Update July 15, 2008. The Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to mark up its FY 2009 agriculture appropriations bill on July 17.

Update July 7, 2008. The National Rural Housing Coalition has learned more details of the FY 2009 funding levels contained in the House Appropriations Subcommittee’s bill, shown in the table above.

a. Figures shown for FY 2007 are before 1 percent across-the-board cut.
b. Rental Assistance contracts were for four years in FY 2006, for two years in FY 2007, and for one year in FY 2008. They will be for one year in FY 2009.
c. The Section 514 and 516 Farm Labor Housing loans and grants are funded from a single account containing $21.54 million.
d. Section 504 grants and the Section 533 HPG program are funded from a single account (Rural Housing Assistance Grants) containing $43.5 million.
e. While $19.9 million would be appropriated for the MPR program, the bill would also rescind $10 million from past MPR appropriations.

Update June 26, 2008. The House Appropriations Committee met on June 26 to consider fiscal year 2009 funding bills for USDA and several other departments, but adjourned a short time later after a partisan dispute on Interior Department funding surfaced. A date to continue the markups has not been established. The House is scheduled to recess for the week of June 30. Read Congressional Quarterly’s article about the committee’s brief session.

June 20, 2008. The House Appropriations Subcommittees for Agriculture and Transportation-HUD (THUD) got the housing budget process underway on June 19 and 20. Some details are available; complete information will be posted here after the full House Appropriations Committee acts on these bills during the week of June 23. Current predictions are that final appropriations bills may not be completed until after the fall election.

On June 19 the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee marked up the FY 2009 USDA appropriations bill. The National Rural Housing Coalition reports that the Subcommittee rejected the rural housing cuts proposed in the Administration’s budget and continued programs at their current funding levels. A press release from Subcommittee Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut) is available here. (Note that Rep. DeLauro’s press release shows the amount of money allocated by the government for each program (“budget authority”), not the final dollars available for each (“program level”).)

The top Republican on the full Appropriations Committee, Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-California) indicated that at least one housing program may face opposition when the bill is considered by the full committee: Section 514/516 Farm Labor Housing Loans and Grants. Lewis’s press release is available here and includes the following:

Lewis also said that there are programs in the bill that could be scaled back or eliminated, such as the farm labor construction grants and loans, because they are duplicative, not widely used, no longer necessary, or have a proven track record of poor performance.

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Georgia), ranking Republican on the Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, also expressed concerns about continuing Section 514/516 funding in his opening remarks before the subcommittee’s markup:

I am concerned about the continuation of 2008 funding for Farm Labor grants and loans in 2009 for construction of facilities for farm laborers. I am concerned not only because the program cannot really function properly without substantial rental assistance and a deep subsidy, I am also concerned because the program is limited to domestic farm workers which means that the program is not widely used by many states.

But most importantly the Department has made a compelling case this program is no longer useful to those who need and supply housing for farm labor. Instead, farm owners are increasingly opting for Low Income Housing Tax Credits as the vehicle for construction and rental assistance to farm workers. This reflects the changing nature of farm labor and farm businesses. In spite of the superficial politics of such an increase, a careful review of this program by the Committee is in order. We should not be funding programs that are not being used or are not useful to the users.

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Posted: June 20, 2008
Last Updated: March 2, 2009

If you have problems accessing any of the material on this page, contact Leslie Strauss at HAC, leslie@ruralhome.org, 202-842-8600.

UPDATE: USDA SPENDING LEVELS SET, CR APPROVED.

Posted: October 1, 2009
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CR Nears Completion.

The House of Representatives adopted a stopgap continuing resolution on Sept. 25 to keep government agencies funded through October 31. The Senate is expected to approve the CR by October 1, the beginning of the new fiscal year. This move will allow Congress to complete work on 2010 appropriations bills. House-Senate conferences to resolve differences between bills are expected to begin next week.

Posted: September 25, 2009

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STOPGAP SPENDING MEASURE PLANNED

Congress this week is expected to pass a continuing resolution to fund federal programs as the new fiscal year begins. Reports are that the continuing resolution will go through October at least. No FY 2010 appropriations bills have passed in final form for the new year starting Oct. 1. House- and Senate-passed bills to fund USDA and HUD await conference committees to resolve differences. For details of the HUD bill see below.

Posted: September 21, 2009

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Obama Administration’s Detailed Budget Holds Most Rural Housing Programs Steady

HAC’s analysis of the USDA RD and HUD budgets is available here (PDF file).

The Administration’s USDA budget would provide $1.25 billion for black farmers whose discrimination complaints have not yet been settled. To read USDA’s press release visit https://www.usda.gov and click Newsroom.

a. Figures shown for FY 2007 are before 1 percent across-the-board cut.
b. Rental Assistance contracts were for four years in FY 2006, for two years in FY 2007, and for one year in FY 2008 and 2009. The budget proposes one-year contracts in 2010.

To access the budget visit https://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/index.html.

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Posted: May 7, 2009
Updated: May 20, 2009

If you have problems accessing any of the material on this page, contact Leslie Strauss at HAC, leslie@ruralhome.org, 202-842-8600.