The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“HOUSING OPPORTUNITY THROUGH MODERNIZATION ACT OF 2015” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Agriculture was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E101 on Feb. 3, 2016.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
HOUSING OPPORTUNITY THROUGH MODERNIZATION ACT OF 2015
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speech of
HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE
of texas
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 3700) to provide housing opportunities in the United States through modernization of various housing programs, and for other purposes:
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Chair, I thank Chairman Luetkemeyer and Ranking Member Cleaver for their leadership, commitment and effort to modernizing and improving Federal Housing programs for millions of Americans who are working their way up to economic empowerment and stability.
I wish to thank Chairman Sessions, Ranking Member Slaughter, and the members of the Rules Committee.
I acknowledge and appreciate the bipartisan efforts by my colleagues across the aisle to modernize and improve Federal housing programs as anticipated in H.R. 3700, the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act of 2015.
For instance, H.R. 3700 contains provisions that would modify core rental assistance programs such as the Housing Choice Vouchers, Public Housing, and Project-Based Rental Assistance, homelessness prevention and assistance programs, and Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage insurance for condominiums.
Additionally, H.R. 3700 amends the Rural Housing Service program in the Department of Agriculture.
Some of its provisions would help streamline the administration of HUD programs.
For instance, this legislation will facilitate income determination for tenants and housing quality inspections for assisted rental housing.
Another provision of the bill seeks to expand flexibility between public housing operating and capital funds.
The legislation seeks to provide additional flexibility to public housing agencies to conditionally approve housing voucher units with non-life threatening deficiencies in order to allow families immediate access.
Although these many provisions of the legislation are commendable, we hope to see improvements in provisions that have been identified as potentially increasing administrative burden and have unintended consequences.
We want to make sure that deductions for child care and medical expense deductions would not adversely impact the lowest income households.
I share the Administration's concern with the delegation of the authority to grant exceptions to HUD requirements to the lenders approving projects under the Direct Endorsement Lender Review and Approval Process.
Another major issue appears to be that the delegation of authority does not appear to provide HUD with sufficient ability to set standards for exceptions and oversee their application and procedure.
There are also concerns that other FHA requirements in the bill may create future difficulties for HUD in implementing timely and consistent program changes in response to market conditions.
I look forward to working with my colleagues across the aisle as we are working to continue to improve the bill as it moves forward.
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