[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 20 (Wednesday, February 3, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E101]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





         HOUSING OPPORTUNITY THROUGH MODERNIZATION ACT OF 2015

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 2, 2016

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 3700) to 
     provide housing opportunities in the United States through 
     modernization of various housing programs, and for other 
     purposes:

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Chair, I thank Chairman Luetkemeyer and Ranking 
Member Cleaver for their leadership, commitment and effort to 
modernizing and improving Federal Housing programs for millions of 
Americans who are working their way up to economic empowerment and 
stability.
  I wish to thank Chairman Sessions, Ranking Member Slaughter, and the 
members of the Rules Committee.
  I acknowledge and appreciate the bipartisan efforts by my colleagues 
across the aisle to modernize and improve Federal housing programs as 
anticipated in H.R. 3700, the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization 
Act of 2015.
  For instance, H.R. 3700 contains provisions that would modify core 
rental assistance programs such as the Housing Choice Vouchers, Public 
Housing, and Project-Based Rental Assistance, homelessness prevention 
and assistance programs, and Federal Housing Administration (FHA) 
mortgage insurance for condominiums.
  Additionally, H.R. 3700 amends the Rural Housing Service program in 
the Department of Agriculture.
  Some of its provisions would help streamline the administration of 
HUD programs.
  For instance, this legislation will facilitate income determination 
for tenants and housing quality inspections for assisted rental 
housing.
  Another provision of the bill seeks to expand flexibility between 
public housing operating and capital funds.
  The legislation seeks to provide additional flexibility to public 
housing agencies to conditionally approve housing voucher units with 
non-life threatening deficiencies in order to allow families immediate 
access.
  Although these many provisions of the legislation are commendable, we 
hope to see improvements in provisions that have been identified as 
potentially increasing administrative burden and have unintended 
consequences.
  We want to make sure that deductions for child care and medical 
expense deductions would not adversely impact the lowest income 
households.
  I share the Administration's concern with the delegation of the 
authority to grant exceptions to HUD requirements to the lenders 
approving projects under the Direct Endorsement Lender Review and 
Approval Process.
  Another major issue appears to be that the delegation of authority 
does not appear to provide HUD with sufficient ability to set standards 
for exceptions and oversee their application and procedure.
  There are also concerns that other FHA requirements in the bill may 
create future difficulties for HUD in implementing timely and 
consistent program changes in response to market conditions.
  I look forward to working with my colleagues across the aisle as we 
are working to continue to improve the bill as it moves forward.

                          ____________________