Appropriations Update
Fiscal year 2004 begins on October 1, 2003. Because Congress is not on track to complete work on the annual appropriations bills by the start of the new fiscal year, a continuing resolution will be necessary once again.
In fact, a continuing resolution which will keep the government running through October 31 (H.J.Res. 69) has already been approved by both the House and the Senate. The bill is already on its way to the President, and it is expected to be signed.
To date, Congress has not completed its work on the Agriculture or VA-HUD bills. Therefore, HUD and RHS programs will once again almost certainly be operating under a continuing resolution after next Tuesday.
FHA Commitments
Help may soon be on the way for FHA multifamily mortgage commitments.
As NAHMA previously reported, the FHA froze new multifamily commitments because they exhausted their budget authority. FHA Commissioner John Weicher issued a public notice which stated, “The Department has determined that the FHA Commitment Authority for Title II mortgages for the General Insurance / Special Risk Insurance Funds may be exhausted prior to the end of the fiscal year.” The notice announced a moratorium on issuing New Firm Commitments, reopening expired Firm Commitments, and amending outstanding Firm Commitments to increase the mortgage amount. Further, the public was informed the suspension of Multifamily Commitments would be in effect “from September 16, 2003 until the enactment of supplemental Commitment Authority in FY 2003 or new Commitment Authority for FY 2004.
Recently approved appropriations bills provide budget authority for new multifamily mortgage commitments through the remainder of FY 2003 and into early 2004. The FY 2004 Legislative Branch Appropriations bill includes $2 billion in authority for FHA to insure mortgages through the end of this fiscal year, which ends on September 30. The Continuing Resolution includes $3.8 billion which would be available October 1 (the start of FY 2004). The Mortgage Bankers Association of America (MBAA) noted that the CR including more money for FHA commitments in the CR than would normally be allowed. According to the MBAA,
“The CR includes an exception to the normal CR rate rules to give FHA access to more commitment authority than they normally would receive during the time of the CR ($3.8 billion instead of $1.8 billion. This was done to ensure that any loans that could not be processed by September 30 could be accommodated in fiscal year 2004. This should allow FHA multifamily programs to operate without risk of another shutdown early in the fiscal year.”
Both bills have been approved by Congress and are on their way to the President.
NAHMA Public Policy Positions
The NAHMA Board of Directors concurred with the Executive Members’ recommendations on two recently considered bills. The Board voted to “Strongly Support” HR 1985, the FHA Multifamily Loan Limit Adjustment Act, which increases the maximum mortgage amount limit for FHA-insured multifamily housing located in high cost areas from 110 percent above the base loan limits to 170 percent above the base loan limits. Likewise, the Board also agreed with the Executive Members’ recommendation to “Support” HR 1030, the HUD Programs Information Verification Act, which requires matching of employment and income information of certain HUD-assisted housing program participants with the National Directory of New Hires. NAHMA’s positions and information about these bills are posted to the public Legislative News section of our website.
Thank you to all Executive Members who voted on these bills.
