On March 6, 2012, the House Financial Services Committee held a markup on its Views and Estimates of President Obama’s fiscal year 2013 budget. In a strict party line vote, the Republican controlled Committee found that the budget “fails to impose the spending discipline necessary to put this nation’s finances in order” and challenges the government to learn to do more with less. A summary of views expressed by the Republican in the Views and Estimates includes:

  • HUD. HUD’s budget continues to grow, HUD has failed to address the problems of unexpended balances and slow spend-out rates in many of its programs.
  • National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF). The Committee questioned whether there is a need to fund the NHTF as in its view, it is a duplicative program.
  • HOME. The Committee supports maintaining HOME funding at $1 billion, as proposed in the President’s Budget, but states concerns about HUD’s oversight of HOME, specifically the appearance that HUD is unable to track the progress of HOME-funded developments.
  • Section 8. The Committee vows to continue measures to reform the Section 8 program. The Committee’s Views document states that a) the public is better served by not expanding Section 8 but rather reforming the program so that public housing authorities are able to serve more people within existing funding levels and b) that current Section 8 recipients that are neither elderly nor disabled should be encouraged to move toward self-sufficiency.
  • PBRA. The Committee expresses concern that the short-funding of PBRA contract renewals will push renewal costs into later years.
  • Housing Counseling. The Committee praises the establishment of the Office of Housing Counseling as a welcome first step in measuring the effectiveness and costs of counseling programs.
  • Section 202 and 811. The Committee expressed concern over the administration of the Section 202 and 811 programs and the fact that both programs have unexpended balances. In addition, the Committee noted that it expects HUD to meet the objectives of the Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act, which are to provide more flexibility to align Section 811 programs with other federal, state, and local funding sources to make more housing available for the disabled.
  • HOPE VI/CNI. The Committee supports folding the HOPE VI program into the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative in FY13.
  • Rural Housing Services (RHS). The Committee states it will review proposals to address funding decreases in RHS single-family and multifamily programs, noting that the most significant RHS program eliminated is the Section 515 multifamily direct loan program for new construction.
  • CDBG. The Committee remains concerned over “questionable uses” of CDBG funds but plans to explore whether CDBG funds can be used to target economically distressed areas.

Click here to read the House Financial Services Committee Views document.