U.S. Senate passes housing appropriations

Legislation still under shadow of presidential veto

WASHINGTON, DC—September 12, 2007—On Wednesday, September 12 the Senate passed HR 3074, the fiscal year 2008 HUD funding bill, by a wide margin of 88-7.  The funding levels for the public housing programs remained unchanged from the earlier Appropriations Committee-passed bill. A very similar bill has also been passed by the House of Representatives.

Several housing-related amendments were passed on the Senate floor. Onewas a provision to require HUD to provide assistance to housing authorities dealing with applicants and residents who have limited English skills.

Funding in the Senate bill includes the following:

$4.2 billion for the Public Housing Operating Fund, the same figure the Appropriations Committee’s House counterparts arrived at and $336 million above the FY 2007 appropriation;

$2.5 billion for the Public Housing Capital Fund, an increase of $61 million over both the House-passed funding level and the FY 2007 appropriation;

$14.9 billion for Tenant-Based Vouchers, an increase of $500 million over the FY 2007 appropriation and approximately $191 million higher than that supported by the House.

After protracted negotiations, an amendment by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) to provide $380,000 to HUD for the creation and promotion of translated materials and other programs that support the assistance of persons with limited English proficiency (LEP) was approved.

The Mendez legislation would require HUD to procure translations of documents it judged to be “vital,” to establish a 24-hour toll-free telephone interpretation service and to establish a document clearinghouse that would make available templates and translated documents that are necessary for consumers and other stakeholders.

Similar to the House-passed version of July 24, the $104.6 billion spending bill for the Departments of HUD, Transportation and related agencies would provide over $4 billion more than President Bush requested. The White House has specifically threatened to veto the HUD appropriations bill. There is some speculation that it may be combined with other bills into a large omnibus bill that would make a presidential veto less likely.

The bill will now go to conference with the House. The conference process is used to negotiate any differences between the House and Senate bills before bills are submitted for the president’s signature. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) is a member of the conference committee.

Source material for this article was supplied by the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities.