NAHMA Members:
Congress has completed work on a Consolidated Appropriations Act to fund government agencies in 2008, and has forwarded the legislation to President Bush for signing into law. At this point no veto threat has been issued for this legislation, so industry advocates are hopeful that it will become law shortly. In the meantime, the continuing resolution under which the government has been operating was extended to December 31 by the House of Representatives, to give time for the President to sign the new appropriations act into law.
Of key note to the affordable housing industry, the appropriations act includes:
* $6.13 billion for project-based Section 8, and $14.69 for tenant-based Section 8
* Also, under Fair Housing: “$380,000 shall be available to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for the creation and promotion of translated materials and other programs that support the assistance of persons with limited English proficiency in utilizing the services provided by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.”
* In addition, a key portion of the HUD appropriations legislation follows:
Sec. 235. (a) Required Submissions for Fiscal Years 2007 and 2008-
(1) IN GENERAL- Not later than 60 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development shall submit to the relevant authorizing committees and to the Committees on Appropriations of the Senate and the House of Representatives for fiscal year 2007 and 2008--
(A) a complete and accurate accounting of the actual project-based renewal costs for project-based assistance under section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f);
(B) revised estimates of the funding needed to fully fund all 12 months of all project-based contracts under such section 8, including project-based contracts that expire in fiscal year 2007 and fiscal year 2008; and
(C) all sources of funding that will be used to fully fund all 12 months of the project-based contracts for fiscal years 2007 and 2008.
(2) UPDATED INFORMATION- At any time after the expiration of the 60-day period described in paragraph (1), the Secretary may submit corrections or updates to the information required under paragraph (1), if upon completion of an audit of the project-based assistance program under section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f), such audit reveals additional information that may provide Congress a more complete understanding of the Secretary's implementation of the project-based assistance program under such section 8.
(b) Required Submissions for Fiscal Year 2009- As part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's budget request for fiscal year 2009, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development shall submit to the relevant authorizing committees and to the Committees on Appropriations of the Senate and the House of Representatives complete and detailed information, including a project-by-project analysis, that verifies that such budget request will fully fund all project-based contracts under section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f) in fiscal year 2009, including expiring project-based contracts.
* $482 million for Rural Development’s Rental Assistance Program, as well as funding for the Multifamily Housing Revitalization Program Account.
* A link to the full appropriations bill text is http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=110_cong_bills&docid=f:h2764eah.txt.pdf. The RD section begins on page 34, and the HUD section begins on page 1343. (It’s a large PDF file and may take a while to load into your browser.) You may also find the bill text by going to www.thomas.gov, and in the search box in the center of the page, type in the bill number (H.R.2764.eah) and click on the button to search by Bill Number, and then click on Search.
In other activity, Congress has also passed and sent to the President for signature, H.R. 3648, the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, which includes a change to the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program’s student eligibility rules. Currently under the LIHTC law, a tax credit unit occupied entirely by full-time students would continue to be a qualified low-income unit only if those full-time students were single parents and their children (none of which could be claimed as a dependent of another individual) or if the full-time students were married and filing a joint tax return. Section 6 of H.R. 3648 would change this provision to allow children of single parents to be dependents of the other parent.
A more detailed analysis of the 2007 appropriations and other key legislation will be provided to NAHMA members in early January.
NAHMA will also continue to advocate for additional funding for the Project-Based Section 8 program – particularly after the work required by Congress of HUD in Section 235 of the appropriations act (see above) is completed. It is likely that industry would request the additional spending in the form of an emergency supplemental appropriation.