PRESIDENT'S SIGNATURE ON HUD/VA BILL EXPECTED MONDAY

On October 15, the VA/HUD FY98 Appropriations Bill was sent to President Clinton for signature, which is expected on Monday, October 27. The President has not indicated that he will exercise the line-item veto on the HUD bill. It should be noted that while funding levels remain the same as reported in the October 8 NCDA Washington Report, the funding levels are not final until President Clinton signs the measure. Funding for the Community Development Block Grant, (CDBG) set at $4.675 billion. The level of set asides within the CDBG program remains at $499.8 million, up from $289.6 billion in FY 1997. These set asides represent a 73 percent increase from FY 1997 levels, and an 11 percent cut to the $4.675 billion program allocated to entitlement communities, urban counties, states and insular areas. The following table illustrates the programs included in the set-asides.

The total available for allocation to grantees is $4.18 billion, down from $4.31 billion in FY 1997.

The Home Investment Partnership (HOME) Program was funded at $1.5 billion, with set asides of $20 million for Housing Counseling and $10 million for a new competitive grant home ownership demonstration project designed to create and expand opportunities through the creation of a secondary market for non-conforming loans. In addition, as in FY 1997, $7.5 million was allocated from HOME to fund HUD's management information system.

CR EXTENDED TO KEEP UNFUNDED AGENCIES OPERATIONAL

Because Congress has only passed five of the thirteen FY98 Appropriations bills, another continuing resolution (CR) extending government operations until November 7, 1997, was passed by the House of Representatives on Wednesday, October 22, and the Senate on October 23. The interim funding bill was immediately forwarded to President Clinton, who signed the bill. Nov-ember 7 is the drop dead date Congress has set for adjournment. All of the remaining spending bills; Agriculture, Commerce, District of Columbia, Foreign Operations, Interior, and Labor/HHS, have some very thorny issues yet to be resolved. House Majority Leader Dick Army (R-TX), noted that there are three major sticking points to be resolved before passage of the remaining appropriations bills can occur, they are; census sampling, national student testing and school vouchers for low-income District of Columbia residents. See related story on the Census below.

VICE PRESIDENT GORE ANNOUNCES HIGHEST LEVEL OF HOMEOWNERSHIP IN AMERICAN HISTORY

At a meeting of Housing Industry professionals on Thursday, October 23, Vice President Gore announced that the U.S. homeownership rate for the third quarter of 1997 rose to 66 percent, the highest level in American history. A record 67.6 million American families now own their own homes.

New Census Bureau figures show a nearly 500,000 increase in families owning their own homes since June of this year, including a record number of African-American, Hispanic and female-headed households. The Vice President credited a strong economy, deficit reduction and low interest rates for the marked increase. HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo, who participated with the Vice President at the briefing, also credited the National Partners in Homeownership, of which NCDA is a member.

The partnership, created in 1995 as part of President Clinton's National Homeownership Strategy, is a coalition of 65 national groups representing the housing industry, lenders, non-profit groups and all sectors of government. With the October 23 announcement, the partnership has nearly reached its original goal of increasing the nation's homeownership rate to two-thirds of American families.

CONFEREES MEET TO IRON OUT SAMPLING ISSUE ON COMMERCE BILL

Both the House and the Senate have appointed members to the conference committee to iron out differences between their respective versions of the fiscal year 1998 appropriations bill that includes funding for the Census Bureau. The conference committee must decide how much money to allocate for 2000 census activities in the fiscal year that began on October 1. Among the issues that must be decided is what the funding level will be, the $382 million approved by the House, or the President's request of $355 million that was approved by the Senate. Aside from the funding level, the biggest issue the conferees must decide is whether to include the sampling provision in the final version of the spending bill. The House version includes language that prohibits any further plans to utilize sampling until the Supreme Court decides if sampling is constitutional.

Sampling, a mathematical calculation to estimate how many people were missed during an individual count, is being proposed in conjunction with the individual count, to make up for the historical undercounting of minorities and low-income families. Opponents of the sampling method claim that sampling validated the constitutional requirement that the census be "enumerated" (counting every person) and fear the sampling would increase the number of Democratic congressional districts. President Clinton has already stated that he will veto the bill if it does not contains the sampling provision.

Without a quick resolution to this issue the Census Bureau is placed in the awkward position of delaying key preparatory activities scheduled for this year. In the coming weeks, the Bureau must begin opening local offices and hiring temporary staff, entering into contract(s) for printing questionnaires, and purchasing new electronic data capture equipment. A Census Dress Rehearsal is scheduled for March, 1998. Other activities include opening and staffing 12 Regional Census Centers, which will manage crucial work to complete the address lists; production of maps for local and tribal governments to confirm political and geographical boundaries, and final evaluation of the questions to be included on the census forms, which must be submitted to Congress by April 1, 1998. Failure to complete any of these essential 'building block' activities, on schedule could jeopardize the quality of the entire data collection effort.

Reminder:

The NCDA Washington Report is now available on the internet! Just point your browser to http://www.ncdaonline.org

NCDA's new e-mail address is ncda@ncdaonline.org -- DO WE HAVE YOURS?

COMMUNITY 2020 SOFTWARE (FORMERLY KNOWN AS CPS+) UPDATE:

IDIS UPDATE

NCDA staff has learned that addresses for single family homes assisted with CDBG funds will be required to be reported on in the same manner as multifamily units currently are. This is a change as to what we were initially advised. This change is needed to keep data consistent with that provided by the HOME program, especially those activities that have funds from both programs. Grantees will need to update, on a quarterly basis, their completion information. So far CDBG program personnel will not be required to enter address information at drawdown. At this writing, HUD's software consultants are creating/revising the appropriate IDIS screens to allow the input of this data. If the system won't allow you to input housing data, it is most likely due to "screen construction."

BROWNFIELDS NOFA

According to HUD officials, the Notice of Funds Available on the $25 million Brownfields Redevelopment Program, is not likely to appear in the Federal Register before February, 1998. HUD is in a state of flux these days and the decision of which division within Community Planing and Development (CPD) will be responsible for program implementation has not yet been made. And, when it finally does get made the NOFA must be drafted and sent through internal clearance before publication in the Federal Register. The only information we were able to glean was that the $25 will most likely be a competitive program and it is hoped that some of these funds can be used in the Administration's Showcase Communities Competition.

THE URBAN WATER COUNCIL HOLDS NATIONAL SUMMIT IN NEW ORLEANS

The U.S. Conference of Mayors Urban Water Council (UWC) was created on August 1, 1995. The purpose of the UWC is to assist local governments in providing high quality water resources in acost effective manner. The UWC provides a forum for local governments to share information on water technology, management methods, operational experience, and financing of infrastructure development. It will serve a platform to assist local governments in exploring competition and public-private partnership approaches, and alternative methods of financing water infrastructure development. The UWC will monitor and respond, as appropriate, to federal legislative, regulatory or policy proposals affecting the delivery of municipal water services.

Mayoral participation in the Urban Water Council is open to all mayors, and functions much like a U.S. Conference of Mayors task force.

Over 50 cities have participated in Urban Council events. Any city can benefit from the forums that the UWC provides. These forums primarily focus on policy, legislative, regulatory and financial issues related to the delivery of municipal water and wastewater services. Participation in these forums provides cities with the opportunity to learn of innovative technology and management methods from representatives from the private sector and other local governments.

FIRST URBAN WATER SUMMIT HELD IN NEW ORLEANS

More than 100 participants, including 20 mayors, local, state, federal and private sector representatives, gathered in New Orleans on September 25-26 to prioritize key water issues facing cities with the ultimate goal being that of sustainable watershed management. Much of the focus of the two days was to prioritize key urban water issues for a report to the Conference of Mayor's Energy and Environment Committee at their Winter Meeting in January. Wilmington Mayor James Sills stressed the importance of sharing information and that "Cities are actively implementing programs all across the country...and we all benefit from when we share what has been effective in our communities..." Mayor Sills indicated that "...by spreading the word about our own best management practices, we can assist other cities address their own local issues.'

Partnership, became a recurring theme among summit participants as they realized that local, state, and federal governments and the private sector entities must work together to meet the increasing need water resources in urban areas. Much of the nation's infrastructure is falling into disrepair. The costs to repair, replace and simply maintain systems are staggering. Without a meeting of the minds and a clear understanding of urban water needs, the problem will be addressed is a haphazard fashion. The first Urban Water Summit accomplished its goal. It brought together many of the key players in funding, design and implementation for water systems and provided a forum to discuss and prioritize needs, and share information on best practices. It was just the beginning of a process that will hopefully keep urban water issues at the forefront of the policy debate in the upcoming legislative year.

Find out more about the Urban Water Council, please contact Michael Gagliardo or Kim Peterson at the U.S. Conference of Mayors at 202-861-6784

FEDERAL REGISTER NOTICES

Statutorily Mandated Designation of Difficult Development Areas for Section 42 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. [Docket No. FR-4287-N-01] This document provide revised designation of "Difficult Development Areas" for purpose of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) under section 42 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, and describes the methodology used by HUD. See page 54732 of the October 21, 1997 Federal Register for more details.

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