[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 2 (Wednesday, January 21, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Page S107]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  SMALL STATE HOME PROGRAM EQUITY ACT

  Mr. DORGAN. Madam President, I rise to support legislation that 
Senator Murkowski introduced last November that would bring some 
fairness to States such as North Dakota and Alaska with low 
populations. I am proud to cosponsor S. 1851, the Small State HOME 
Program Equity Act.
  This legislation would increase the minimum funding level provided to 
low-population States for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban 
Development's HOME Investment Partnerships Program. The HOME Investment 
Partnership Program distributes funds to State and local governments to 
expand housing for low-income families. It is one of the most important 
tools that States, local governments, and nonprofits have to respond to 
affordable housing needs. The program helps both renters and homebuyers 
across the country by rehabilitating substandard housing and funding 
new construction.
  The HOME Investment Partnership Program has been enormously 
successful in providing housing for those in need, and I have been a 
strong supporter of annual appropriations for this important program. 
For the last several years, I have joined many of my colleagues in 
sending a letter to Senators Bond and Mikulski, the chairman and 
ranking member of the VA-HUD and Independent Agencies Appropriations 
Subcommittee, supporting robust funding for the HOME program.
  Since 1992, the first year in which funds were appropriated for this 
program, HOME funds have been dispersed by a statutory formula, which 
is based in part on a State's population. At the time the program was 
created, a minimum funding level of $3 million was established for 
States which would receive a small amount of HOME funds under the 
allocation formula.
  Over the last 10 years, inflation has significantly eroded the value 
of this minimum allocation and it is very difficult for States to meet 
their housing needs on only the minimum allocation of HOME funds. In 
Grand Forks County in North Dakota, for example, the wait list for HOME 
rehabilitation funding is estimated to be 11 years. I would imagine 
that the situation is similar in the 10 States that are not currently 
receiving a level of funding that allows them to run effective programs 
with their HOME dollars.
  This is unacceptable. States with low populations deserve to have 
adequate funding to meet the unique housing needs of rural areas where 
construction and rehabilitation costs are often very high. The 
congressionally appointed, bipartisan Millennium Housing Commission 
also recognized this problem. It recommended increasing the minimum 
State funding level for the HOME program to $5 million in their May 30, 
2002, report to Congress.
  I look forward to working with Senator Murkowski on this important 
legislation to meet the housing needs of low-income families in rural 
America.

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