[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 621 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 621

   Recognizing the community development block grant program of the 
   Department of Housing and Urban Development, and its role as the 
  Nation's largest and most visible source of financial assistance to 
       support State- and local government-directed neighborhood 
   revitalization, housing rehabilitation, and economic development 
                              activities.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             August 3, 2007

 Ms. Waters submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
                  the Committee on Financial Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
   Recognizing the community development block grant program of the 
   Department of Housing and Urban Development, and its role as the 
  Nation's largest and most visible source of financial assistance to 
       support State- and local government-directed neighborhood 
   revitalization, housing rehabilitation, and economic development 
                              activities.

Whereas the community development block grant program (known as the CDBG 
        program) was established by title I of the Housing and Community 
        Development Act of 1974;
Whereas the Congress has required that each State and entitlement community 
        receiving CDBG funds allocate 70 percent of such funds to activities 
        that primarily benefit low- and moderate-income persons;
Whereas in 2005--

    (1) there were 37,000,000 people in the United States living in 
poverty;

    (2) the poverty rate (the percentage of the total population of the 
United States living in poverty) was 12.6 percent, but the poverty rate for 
African-Americans was 24.9 percent (9,200,000 persons) and for Hispanics 
was 21.8 percent (9,400,000 persons);

    (3) 12,300,000 children (17.1 percent) were living in poverty; and

    (4) the poverty rate of persons 65 years of age or older was 10.1 
percent (3,600,000 persons);

Whereas the incidence of poverty is more highly concentrated in some areas of 
        the United States than in others; within metropolitan areas, the 
        incidence of poverty in central city areas is about twice as high as in 
        suburban areas, 17.0 percent compared to 9.3 percent, respectively, in 
        2005;
Whereas the CDBG program has been responsible for eliminating and preventing 
        slums and blight and for reducing poverty and crime in our Nation's 
        communities;
Whereas the CDBG program has met urgent community development needs where 
        existing conditions posed a serious or immediate threat to the public;
Whereas the CDBG program has been used to meet the ``urgent threat'' resulting 
        from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita;
Whereas despite a decline in funding for the CDBG program from $4,400,000,000 
        for fiscal year 2001 to $3,700,000,000 for fiscal year 2006, thereby 
        placing a major burden on communities with high incidences of poverty to 
        utilize CDBG funds to meet the needs of low- and moderate-income 
        persons, it is particularly important that States and entitlement 
        communities receiving CDBG funds continue to fund projects that 
        alleviate poverty; and
Whereas funds provided by the CDBG program are essential to States and 
        entitlement communities for carrying out activities that reduce poverty, 
        yet in the past two years more than 5,000,000 low- and moderate-income 
        persons have been adversely impacted by significant reductions in 
        services as a result of cuts in CDBG funding: Now therefore, be it
    Resolved,  That the House of Representatives--
            (1) fully supports the goals of the community development 
        block grant program of the Department of Housing and Urban 
        Development;
            (2) recognizes the importance of the community development 
        block grant program in reducing poverty and strengthening 
        communities in the United States; and
            (3) as part of the Congress's dedication to continued 
        efforts on the part of States and entitlement communities to 
        make further reductions in poverty, strongly urges such 
        entities to review their allocations of CDBG funds to ensure 
        that special emphasis is placed on using such funds to 
        eliminate poverty.
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