Congress

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released a report to Congress entitled “Tax Expenditures: Background and Evaluation Criteria and Questions.” The report examines the costs and benefits of tax expenditures and the effectiveness of specific tax expenditures in meeting their intended goals.

On Monday December 31, 2012, the Senate approved the appointment of Carol J. Galante as the Commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and Assistant Secretary of Housing for HUD by a measure of 69-24, with 18 of the approving votes coming from Senate Republicans.

NH&RA was pleased to welcome over 200 industry professionals to our 2012 Fall Developers Forum. All conference materials including Power Point presentations, reports, memos and articles from the conference are available for download.

The New Markets Tax Credit Coalition recently released the New Markets Tax Credit Economic Report for 2003 to 2012 entitled “Measuring the Direct and Catalytic Impact of New Markets Tax Credit Investments in Low Income Communities”.

We invite you to take a short break from your year end closings and join more than 150 of the leading developers and affordable housing professionals from around the country at our 2012 Fall Developers Forum at the Langham Hotel. The Developers Forum is the last NH&RA conference of the year!

The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) recently released a report detailing the implications that impending budget deficit reduction measures could have on housing and community development programs

A new Senate bill introduced September 2012, S. 3538, would reduce administrative burdens and complexities for certain local public housing agencies (PHAs) that administer federal low-income housing programs. The purpose of the legislative measure is for PHAs to realize administrative savings, but the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) says the measure could present other, more harmful challenges.

The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) will meet Thursday, November 15, 2012. The meeting will be held in the Room SR325 at the Russell Senate Office Building at Constitution and Delaware Avenues NE., Washington, DC at 8:30 a.m. The ACHP was established by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (16 U.S.C. 470 et seq.) to advise the President and Congress on national historic preservation policy and to comment upon federal, federally assisted, and federally licensed undertakings having an effect upon properties listed in or eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places.

The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) will meet Thursday, November 15, 2012. The meeting will be held in the Room SR325 at the Russell Senate Office Building at Constitution and Delaware Avenues NE., Washington, DC at 8:30 a.m.

The US House of Representatives recently passed a continuing resolution (CR) (HJ Res 117) on September 13, 2012 by a vote of 329-91, followed by passage in the Senate by a vote of 62-30 on September 22, 2012. The CR effectively delays final decisions for fiscal year (FY) 2013 spending until after the elections and will allow, if necessary, the Federal government to run uninterrupted through March 27, 2013 until a new Congress takes office.

A recent Administrative Notice released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development, Notice 4679, announces that the transition to using data from the 2010 decennial Census and American Community Survey (ACS) will be delayed until March 27, 2013, when the recently passed continuing resolution expires.

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed the Vulnerable Veterans Housing Reform Act of 2012 (HR 6361) which would exclude in-home disability care payments from veterans’ income calculations for some HUD housing programs.