[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4436 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4436

  To reform and improve certain housing programs of the Department of 
                     Housing and Urban Development.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 20, 2004

 Mr. Deutsch (for himself and Mr. Hastings of Florida) introduced the 
   following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial 
                                Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To reform and improve certain housing programs of the Department of 
                     Housing and Urban Development.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Fair Housing Protection Act''.

SEC. 2. CLARIFICATION OF PER-UNIT COSTS UNDER SECTION 8 RENTAL HOUSING 
              ASSISTANCE PROGRAM.

    (a) In General.--Paragraph (1) of the item relating to the Housing 
Certificate Fund in title II of the Departments of Veterans Affairs and 
Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations 
Act, 2004 (division G of Public Law 108-199; 118 Stat. 372) is 
amended--
            (1) by inserting ``in each calendar quarter'' after ``and 
        by applying''; and
            (2) by inserting ``in the most recent quarter for which the 
        public housing agency has submitted such actual per unit cost 
        information to the Secretary'' after ``actual per unit cost''.
    (b) Applicability.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall 
apply to all expiring section 8 tenant-based annual contributions 
contracts renewed pursuant to the paragraph referred to in subsection 
(a), whether such renewal occurs before, on, or after the date of the 
enactment of this Act.

SEC. 3. PLAN TO END WAITING LISTS FOR SECTION 8 RENTAL HOUSING 
              ASSISTANCE.

    (a) Development of Plan.--The Secretary of Housing and Urban 
Development shall develop a plan to reduce and eventually eliminate the 
delay between the submission by an eligible family to a public housing 
agency of an application for rental housing assistance under section 8 
of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f) and the time 
when such assistance is eventually made available on behalf of such a 
family. The plan shall--
            (1) identify actual affordable housing needs, taking into 
        consideration needs of eligible families who have not applied 
        to a public housing agency for housing assistance due to 
        extensive or closed waiting lists;
            (2) provide for elimination of waiting lists over both the 
        10- and 20-year periods that begin upon the date of the 
        enactment of this Act;
            (3) determine the amount of additional funding and other 
        resources necessary to eliminate the delay in providing housing 
        assistance to eligible families and the appropriate programs 
        and activities to which to devote such resources;
            (4) include a strategy for expenditure of additional funds 
        that sets forth the projected results of such expenditures; and
            (5) set forth options for an incentive program to encourage 
        landlords to participate in the rental housing assistance 
        program under such section 8.
    (b) Report.--Not later than 6 months after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development 
shall submit a report to the Congress setting forth the plan required 
under subsection (a).

SEC. 4. PROTECTION OF SECTION 8 RESERVES.

    (a) Notification and Replenishment.--If the Secretary of Housing 
and Urban Development withdraws amounts from the reserve account for 
any public housing agency, or takes any other action that has the 
result of reducing amounts in a reserve account without approval of the 
agency, the Secretary shall--
            (1) immediately notify the agency of such withdrawal or 
        action; and
            (2) before the commencement of the quarter of the fiscal 
        year first commencing after such withdrawal or action, 
        replenish such reserve account with the full amount of such 
        withdrawal or reduction.
    (b) Zero Balance Approval.--The Secretary of Housing and Urban 
Development may not withdraw amounts from the reserve account for any 
public housing agency, or take any other action that has the result of 
reducing amounts in a reserve account, if such withdrawal or action 
causes the balance of amounts in the reserve account for a public 
housing agency to fall to zero, unless, in advance of such withdrawal 
or action, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development notifies the 
public housing agency of withdrawal or action and obtains written 
approval of such withdrawal or action from such public housing agency.
    (c) Quarterly Notification.--The Secretary of Housing and Urban 
Development shall, on a quarterly basis, notify each public housing 
agency of the balance of amounts in the reserve account for the agency.
    (d) Definitions.--For purposes of this section:
            (1) Public housing agency.--The term ``public housing 
        agency'' has the meaning given the term in section 3(b) of the 
        United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437a(b)).
            (2) Reserve account.--The term ``reserve account'' means, 
        with respect to a public housing agency, the annual 
        contributions contract reserve account for the agency for the 
        tenant-based rental assistance program under section 8 of the 
        United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f) .

SEC. 5. ADDITIONAL FUNDING FOR FAIR HOUSING INITIATIVES PROGRAM.

    Subsection (g) of section 561 of the Housing and Community 
Development Act of 1987 (42 U.S.C. 3616a) is amended by adding after 
and below paragraph (4) the following:
``In addition to any other amounts made available to carry out this 
section, there is authorized to be appropriated for investigative and 
enforcement activities under this section $20,000,000 for each of 
fiscal years 2005, 2006, and 2007. ''.
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