|
WASHINGTON--House Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity, wrote Tuesday to Mel Martinez, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), urging him to make good on his promise to increase the level of Operating Fund assistance for the nation’s public housing authorities (PHA).
On January 6, 2003 HUD told public housing agencies that they initially would receive operating subsidy funding at only 70 percent of the FY2002 budget. [Click here to see HUD’s notice of January 6, 2003.] In a later “clarification” HUD called the 70 percent figure “a temporary estimate” that would be effective only until Congress finalized the agency’s 2003 budget—at which time PHA budgets would be funded at 90 percent. [Click here to see HUD’s clarification of January 15, 2003.]
President Bush signed the appropriations bill containing HUD funding on February 20, 2003.
“It is outrageous that public housing authorities were subjected to this unexpected budget cut. It is doubly so now since the new appropriation has been finalized and HUD has not moved immediately to alleviate these onerous cuts,” said Rep. Waters.
Mr. Martinez is scheduled to testify before the House Financial Services Committee on March 5, 2003 on the president’s proposed FY2004 HUD budget. Democrats will ask him at that time how he intends to restore the PHA operating subsidy.
[See copy of letter attached here.]
-30-
The Committee oversees all components of the nation’s housing and financial services sectors including banking, insurance, real estate, public and assisted housing, and securities. The Committee continually reviews the laws and programs relating to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Federal Reserve Bank, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and international development and finance agencies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The Committee also ensures enforcement of housing and consumer protection laws such as the U.S. Housing Act, the Truth In Lending Act, the Housing and Community Development Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, the Community Reinvestment Act, and financial privacy laws. |
|
