[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Pages 22943-22944]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




TRANSPORTATION, TREASURY, THE JUDICIARY, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, 
        AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006--Continued

  Mr. BOND. Mr. President, we are back on the Treasury-Transportation-
Housing and Urban Development bill. The minority Member, my partner, 
Senator Murray, and I are ready to do business. I understand we are 
waiting for final negotiations from both sides on the potential two 
votes that we hope will be ready to be put forward early this 
afternoon. As soon as we know something about that and can reach an 
agreement, we will advise all Senators.
  In the meantime, the Kennedy amendment on minimum wage is pending. We 
expect there will be an alternative amendment which will be proposed, 
and that will be voted on right after or right before the Kennedy 
amendment.
  We ask all Members who have an amendment they want to file to please 
bring it in, and we hope we can work it out with them. If it is 
something that can be accepted, we would like to do so because we need 
to finish this bill--the sooner the better.
  The leaders have advised us that we will be in this week and weekend 
until we finish the bill. My personal preference would be to finish it 
this week and not on Friday afternoon or Saturday.
  It would be very helpful if they would bring in those amendments. 
Very shortly, we will be conferring with leadership on both sides to 
establish an agreed-upon deadline for filing all first-degree 
amendments.
  I thank the Chair.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I thank the chairman of the subcommittee 
and urge all of our colleagues to bring their amendments to the floor. 
As I stated last night, the chairman of the subcommittee was in a good 
mood. We had a great baseball game last night, from his viewpoint, for 
all of us who stayed up to watch the final home run. I think he is 
amenable to talking to anyone who would like to bring their amendments 
today. I would suggest our colleagues get that done. I think we all 
want to finish this bill, most importantly because we need to go to 
conference on this bill. We are again operating under a continuing 
resolution. There are many serious issues affecting our investment in 
housing, our investment in the FAA, in transportation, highways, as 
well as many other issues that are within this bill. We have a lot of 
work ahead of us in terms of getting this to conference and working out 
our differences with the House.
  I urge my colleagues to bring their amendments to the floor. We are 
going to be talking about a time agreement fairly soon. If Members want 
their issues addressed, they need to bring them to the floor.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I ask that the pending amendment, the 
Kennedy amendment, be temporarily set aside.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                           Amendment No. 2079

  Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I have another technical amendment to offer 
at this time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from Missouri [Mr. Bond] proposes an amendment 
     numbered 2079.

  Mr. BOND. I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment 
be dispensed with.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The amendment is as follows:

(Purpose: Ensures that PHAs will receive adequate funding for section 8 
                        project-based vouchers)

       On page 295, line 6, strike ``or HOPE VI vouchers'' and 
     insert in lieu thereof: ``, HOPE VI vouchers or vouchers that 
     were not in use during the 12-month period in order to be 
     available to meet a commitment pursuant to section 8(o)(13) 
     of the Act''.

  Mr. BOND. Mr. President, this is rather technical, but it has to do 
with public housing authorities and their ability to use future Section 
8 vouchers on project-based assistance needs. As many know, in the past 
public housing was constructed when the assistance was tied to the 
project rather than to an individual. That enabled the public housing 
authority or other entity to get financing to build the units and then 
receive the income from the Federal housing assistance.
  Right now, there is a process for refining the allocation of Section 
8 vouchers to public housing authorities so they do not have unused 
Section 8 vouchers. That has been a good thing because that means the 
money for housing assistance goes to those who most need it. However, 
the problem arises when public housing authorities need to put aside or 
shelve some of the needed Section 8 certificates or vouchers allocated 
to them in order to provide a basis of funding for construction of 
additional housing.
  In some areas--I know in my State and across the country--we can hand 
out all of the Section 8 vouchers we want for people needing housing 
assistance, and they do not do much good because there is not housing 
available. So we have to have the flexibility for the public housing 
authorities to take some of the vouchers allocated to them and say: We 
will commit them to this project in order to build the housing we need.
  This amendment includes funding for the projected use of Section 8 
project assistance needs of public housing agencies. Normally, for 
developing housing within the project-based assistance, PHA would 
shelve the needed vouchers for the 1- to 3-year development timeline 
for an assisted project. Under the current approach for funding 
vouchers designed to assure that there were no Section 8 certificates 
wasted, the projected funding needs related to project-based vouchers 
would not be funded, thus removing the incentive or the ability to 
develop Section 8 housing, regardless of need.

[[Page 22944]]

  We believe this amendment will ensure that the planned use of 
project-based vouchers is funded without prejudice, thus allowing the 
local public housing authorities in communities across the country to 
develop project-based assisted housing where there is not otherwise 
housing needed for the people who are homeless, who need better shelter 
in the area.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, we are in agreement on this amendment. It 
simply will clarify for the purposes of distributing funding from 
Section 8 housing assistance. Public housing authorities would not be 
penalized for shelving vouchers temporarily to develop a longer term 
project. This is a fairness issue, and we are all in agreement. I urge 
its passage.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendment.
  The amendment (No. 2079) was agreed to.
  Mr. BOND. I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mrs. MURRAY. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
  Mr. BOND. I thank all of my colleagues. If any colleagues have 
compelling statements related to this issue which may be important in 
their States, we are happy to have those added to the Record with this 
vote. Again, we await the arrival of others with amendments on which we 
can work.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Talent). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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