House HUD Appropriations Bill Now Ready for House Consideration; My Initial Review of Bill.

Bill now has a bill number, H.R. 3288. [ With rule now approved, bill can now be considered by House, from a quick look at C-SPAN it appears that consideration could begin at any time].

A side by side comparison of HUD funding vs prior year and budget request begins on pg. 430 of the Committee report.

Some initial observations after scanning the Committee report: (any page references are to PDF page numbers,in the Committee report, not printed page numbers).

1. HUD Counseling Request Reduced, Focus to be on Prepurchase (p.158).HUD counseling funding request was reduced by $30 million (from $100 m to $70 m) and is to be focused on prepurchase counseling; post purchase/foreclosure counseling to be led by Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation. NRC was funded at $63.8 m for those activities.
   
2. Rental Housing Funding Increased by $1.2 B (P.160; P. 165; p.190). Major accounts for rental housing were increased from budget request. Tenant based vouchers +$406 m; public housing operating fund +$200 m; project based rental assistance +$600 m
   
3. Transformation Initiative Fund Request Sources Cut in Half (p.204). HUD has proposed using 1% of wide variety of accounts for a Transformation Initiative Fund which would have provided up to $433 million. House eliminated use of voucher and public housing as sources, effectively reducing maximum funding by $209 m, a 52% reduction.
4. Energy Innovation Funding Request Cut in Half(p.195). From $100 m to $50 m. Eliminates the proposed local initiatives energy innovation fund, says focus instead on reducing energy costs in subsidized housing
5. HOME Increased by $175 m (p. 188).
   
6. Sustainable Communities Fully Funded @ $150 M. (p.172)."... $100,000,000 shall be for Regional Planning Grants to support the linking of transportation and land use planning: ...$40,000,000 shall be for Metropolitan Challenge Grants to foster reform and reduce barriers to achieve affordable, economically vital, and sustainable communities: .... up to $10,000,000 shall be for a joint Department of Housing and Urban Development and Department of Transportation research effort that shall include a rigorous evaluation of the Regional Planning Grants and Metropolitan Challenge Grants programs." Comment: Committee says they want DOT to pony up their share of this joint DOT/HUD effort, but I didn't see any requirement on the DOT side of this bill. (If Committee really wanted this to happen wouldn't they fund it on DOT side since bill also covers DOT?).
7. No Oregon Earmarks. Long lists but I didn't see any Oregon earmarks.
8. HOPE VI Increased from Request by $250 m; Choice Neighborhoods Not Funded, but Door Left Open. (p. 166). "Should the [Choice Neighborhoods] Initiative be approved by the relevant authorizing committees before the fiscal year 2010 budget is enacted, the Committee will adjust accordingly."
   
9. FHA/GSE Loan Limits Increased: FHA language follows from actual bill not conference report, GSE language is similar. "Sec. 233. FHA Loan Limits for fiscal year 2010. (a) LOAN LIMIT FLOOR BASED ON 2008 LEVELS- For mortgages for which the mortgagee issues credit approval for the borrower during fiscal year 2010, if the dollar amount limitation on the principal obligation of a mortgage determined under section 203(b)(2) of the National Housing Act (12 U.S.C. 1709(b)(2)) for any size residence for any area is less than such dollar amount limitation that was in effect for such size residence for such area for 2008 pursuant to section 202 of the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 (Public Law 110-185; 122 Stat. 620), notwithstanding any other provision of law, the maximum dollar amount limitation on the principal obligation of a mortgage for such size residence for such area for purposes of such section 203(b)(2) shall be considered (except for purposes of section 255(g) of such Act (12 U.S.C. 1715z-20(g))) to be such dollar amount limitation in effect for such size residence for such area for 2008."

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.