WASHINGTON, D.C. - The House of Representatives last night approved bipartisan legislation introduced by Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Charles B. Rangel and Ranking Republican Jim McCrery aimed at speeding up the construction of affordable homes in hurricane ravaged communities in the Gulf Coast region.
The “Katrina Housing Tax Relief Act of 2007"-one of several efforts by the Democratic majority to address the needs of hurricane victims-takes an important step toward meeting the housing concerns of the area.
“This is important legislation because the nation suffered a tremendous national setback in Katrina," Rangel (D-NY) said today. “Thousands of people in Mississippi and Louisiana felt the pain, and somehow we are still sluggishly moving toward some type of solution for their problems."
Rangel said he appreciated the role McCrery (R-LA) and the Republican minority on the Ways and Means committee played in winning bipartisan support for the bill, which was passed by a voice vote. The chairman extended a special thanks to Oversight Subcommittee Chairman John Lewis (D-GA) for steering this legislation through the committee and managing it on the House floor.
“One of the major problems is housing, and we on the Ways and Means committee are playing part in putting together tax incentives to spur the redevelopment of the Gulf Coast so that people can return home," the chairman said.
The bipartisan legislation facilitates the rebuilding by making substantial changes and broadening the eligibility requirements for low-income housing tax credits and tax-exempt mortgages.
Housing officials from the Gulf Coast testified earlier this month before Lewis’s subcommittee that changes in the tax law relating to those programs were needed to ensure that residents of the region had access to as many helpful tools as possible.
The legislation approved by Congress strengthens existing tax incentives to builders of affordable rental housing. Currently, those units would have to be inhabited by the end of 2008.
But because of the extraordinary upheaval Hurricane Katrina wreaked on municipal land use practices and the building process, many developers might not be able to meet this deadline. Under this proposal the date is extended through 2010.
Additionally, the bill extends to requirements to allow more homeowners to use tax-exempt mortgage bonds for substantial renovations and to refinance existing residential mortgage loans.
“The Congress has already provided $15 billion in tax relief to victims of the devastating hurricanes of 2005, but it is clear we can and must do more," said Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), chairman of the Oversight Subcommittee. “This is a good bill and it is a necessary bill."
