The House recently voted to approve its fiscal 2011 Transportation and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Appropriations bill (H.R. 5850), the second of 12 spending measures the chamber will consider to fund the operations of the federal government.

Of interest to NAHB members are funding levels for some key federal programs, including:

• Section 8 Tenant-based Rental Assistance: $17.2 billion for renewals of expiring contracts
• HOPE VI: $200 million
• Community Development Block Grants (CDBG): $3.99 billion
• Sustainable Communities Initiative: $150 million to "improve regional planning efforts that integrate housing and transportation decisions, and increase the capacity to improve land use and zoning"
• Section 108 Loan Guarantees: $10 million
• Brownfields Redevelopment: $17.5 million
• HOME Program: $1.825 billion
• Project-Based Rental Assistance (Section 8): $8.982 billion
• Housing Counseling Assistance: $88 million
• FHA Single Family Loan Guarantees under the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund: $400 billion limit
• General Insurance and Special Risk Insurance (GI/SRI) Guaranteed Loan commitment level: $20 billion in total loan principal
• Policy Development and Research: $50 million
• Lead Hazard Reduction Program: $140 million
• Healthy Homes Initiative: $40 million (taken from Lead Hazard Reduction Program total funding)
• Transformative Initiative to combat mortgage fraud: $20 million
• FHA/GSE Conforming Loan Limits: 2008 levels extended through the end of fiscal 2011; Discretionary authority for sub-areas provided

With the new fiscal year beginning on Oct. 1, the Senate is not expected to approve any domestic appropriations bills until mid-September at the earliest. It is possible that Congress will approve a continuing resolution at that time to temporarily keep the government running past the beginning of the new fiscal year, and later enact a giant omnibus spending measure during a lame duck session of Congress.

The House-passed fiscal 2011 Transportation-HUD bill is likely to serve as a template for the housing funding levels in any year-end omnibus package.

To view the legislation, click here and enter H.R. 5850 in the box at the upper center of the page.

For more information, e-mail Jenna Hamilton at NAHB, or call her at 800-368-5242 x8407.