[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 24 (Tuesday, February 6, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5582-5583]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-1904]



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Part IV





Department of Housing and Urban Development





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America's Affordable Communities Initiative; HUD's Initiative on 
Removal of Regulatory Barriers: Incentive Criteria on Barrier Removal 
in HUD's Competitive Funding Allocations; Solicitation of Comments on 
Effectiveness of Criteria; Notice

  Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 24 / Tuesday, February 6, 2007 / 
Notices  

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DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

[Docket No. FR-4882-N-04]


America's Affordable Communities Initiative; HUD's Initiative on 
Removal of Regulatory Barriers: Incentive Criteria on Barrier Removal 
in HUD's Competitive Funding Allocations; Solicitation of Comments on 
Effectiveness of Criteria

AGENCY: Office of the General Counsel, HUD.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In this notice, HUD solicits comment on the effectiveness of 
increasing efforts to reduce regulatory barriers to affordable housing 
by establishing, in HUD's competitive funding allocations, a policy 
priority for increasing the supply of affordable housing through the 
removal of regulatory barriers. A description of this policy priority, 
along with the Department's other policy priorities for competitive 
funding allocations, can be found each year in the Department's annual 
publication of its General Section to HUD's Super Notice of Funding 
Availability (SuperNOFA). Policy priorities provide applicants with the 
opportunity to obtain higher rating points if the applicants can 
demonstrate they are undertaking activities that promote the policy 
priorities.
    The publication of the General Section of HUD's FY2007 SuperNOFA on 
January 18, 2007, marks the fourth year that HUD has included the 
removal of regulatory barriers as part of its policy priorities. In 
2007, HUD is implementing the renewal process, as required by the 
Paperwork Reduction Act, for the questionnaire that must be completed 
to obtain the higher rating points for the regulatory barriers policy 
priority (if an applicant chooses to seek points for this priority). As 
part of this renewal process, HUD is seeking additional input on the 
effectiveness of the questionnaire in contributing to or promoting 
efforts to reduce regulatory barriers, and whether HUD should either 
(1) continue to implement this incentive criteria through the 
questionnaire or (2) consider any alternative and more effective means 
of providing incentive criteria for higher rating points in HUD NOFAs 
for removal of regulatory barriers. HUD will take this input into 
consideration in the development of HUD's FY2008 SuperNOFA.

DATES: Comment Due Date: March 23, 2007.

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments regarding 
this notice to the Office of the General Counsel, Rules Docket Clerk, 
Department of Housing and Urban Development, 451 Seventh Street, SW., 
Room 10276, Washington, DC 20410-0001. Communications should refer to 
the above docket number and title.
    Electronic Submission of Comments. Interested persons may submit 
comments electronically through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at 
www.regulations.gov. HUD strongly encourages commenters to submit 
comments electronically. Electronic submission of comments allows the 
commenter maximum time to prepare and submit a comment, ensures timely 
receipt by HUD, and enables HUD to make them immediately available to 
the public. Comments submitted electronically through the 
www.regulations.gov Web site can be viewed by other commenters and 
interested members of the public. Commenters should follow the 
instructions provided on that site to submit comments electronically.
    No Facsimile Comments. Facsimile (FAX) comments are not acceptable. 
In all cases, communications must refer to the docket number and title.
    Public Inspection of Public Comments. All comments and 
communications submitted to HUD will be available, without charge, for 
public inspection and copying between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays at the 
above address. Due to security measures at the HUD Headquarters 
building, an advance appointment to review the public comments must be 
scheduled by calling the Regulations Division at (202) 708-3055 (this 
is not a toll-free number). Persons with hearing or speech impairments 
may access this number via TTY by calling the toll-free Federal 
Information Relay Service at 1-800-877-8339. Copies of all comments 
submitted are available for inspection and downloading at 
www.regulations.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Camille E. Acevedo, Associate General 
Counsel for Legislation and Regulations, Office of General Counsel, 
Department of Housing and Urban Development, 451 Seventh Street, SW., 
Room 10282,Washington, DC 20410-0500, telephone (202) 708-1793 (this is 
not a toll-free number). Persons with hearing or speech impairments may 
access this number through TTY by calling the toll-free Federal 
Information Relay Service at (800) 877-8339.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    On November 25, 2003, HUD announced through a Federal Register 
notice (68 FR 66294) a proposal to provide an incentive to applicants 
for HUD funds distributed competitively to engage in efforts to remove 
regulatory barriers in their jurisdictions. HUD proposed that such 
incentive criteria would commence with HUD's FY2004 competitive funding 
process, and the policy priority for increasing the supply of 
affordable housing through the removal of regulatory barriers (referred 
to, for brevity purposes, as the ``Removal of Regulatory Barriers'' 
policy priority) would be added to HUD's list of already established 
policy priorities. As a policy priority in HUD's NOFAs (and like other 
policy priorities in HUD NOFAs), higher rating points are made 
available to applicants.
    For the Removal of Regulatory Barriers policy priority higher 
rating points would be made available to (1) governmental applicants 
that are able to demonstrate successful efforts in removing regulatory 
barriers to affordable housing, and (2) nongovernmental applicants that 
are associated with jurisdictions that have undertaken successful 
efforts in removing barriers. The proposal advised that for the higher 
rating points to be obtained, applicants had to respond to a series of 
evaluative questions that HUD determined were significantly important 
and have broad-based applicability to measure state, local, and tribal 
government efforts at regulatory reform and which serve as good 
``markers'' for effective regulatory reform.
    HUD solicited public comment from prospective applicants of HUD 
funding as well as other interested members of the public. HUD received 
37 public comments in response to the November 2003 notice. The 
majority of the commenters supported the proposal. By Federal Register 
notice published on March 22, 2004 (69 FR 13450), HUD announced that it 
would proceed to establish the Removal of Regulatory Barriers policy 
priority in the majority of its FY2004 NOFAs. In announcing this final 
determination, HUD also advised that it took into consideration the 
public comments received on the November 2003 notice and made several 
changes to the questionnaire. The questionnaire was subject to one 
technical correction, which HUD advised the public by Federal Register 
notice published on April 21, 2004 (69 FR 21664).
    The Removal of Regulatory Barriers policy priority was part of 
HUD's

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FY2004 SuperNOFA published on May 14, 2004 (69 FR 26942), and has 
continued to be included as a policy priority in each year's SuperNOFA 
since that date. A description of the Removal of Regulatory Barriers 
policy priority can be found in the General Section to HUD's FY2007 
SuperNOFA published on January 18, 2007 (72 FR 2396).
    As noted in the ``Summary'' introduction to this notice, HUD is in 
the process of renewing, under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), the 
Office of Management and Budget approval number for the Regulatory 
Barriers questionnaire that is used to implement the policy priority. 
This renewal process requires the publication of two Federal Register 
notices and the solicitation of public comments. The first PRA notice 
solicits public comments for a period of 60 days and the second PRA 
notice solicits public comments for a period of 30 days.
    The ``60-day'' notice was published in the Federal Register on 
October 12, 2006 (71 FR 60161), and no comments were received in 
response to this notice. The ``30-day'' notice published on January 29, 
2007 (72 FR 4015).
    Through this notice, HUD seeks comments, apart from the comments 
solicited by the PRA notices, on the effectiveness of the questionnaire 
in obtaining information about successful efforts from applicants to 
remove regulatory barriers in their jurisdictions or to be associated 
with jurisdictions, which have undertaken successful efforts to remove 
regulatory barriers. The removal of regulatory barriers remains a high 
policy priority of HUD. In awarding applicants higher points for 
undertaking activities related to this policy priority, HUD seeks to 
ensure that the information requested through the questionnaire is 
reasonable and meaningful, and the award of higher points is fair. 
Since the policy priority has now been in effect for a period of four 
years, which includes the FY2007 SuperNOFA, HUD determined that the 
passage of this period of time may offer sufficient information and 
experience to assess the effectiveness of the questionnaire. Therefore, 
HUD solicits input from all applicants eligible for HUD competitive 
funding allocations.
    All comments received in response to this solicitation will be 
taken into consideration as HUD undertakes the development of the 
FY2008 SuperNOFA. Should a more favorable alternative or proposal be 
suggested by the commenters, HUD will notify applicants and solicit 
public comments on any new proposal regarding the Removal of Regulatory 
Barriers policy priority.
    HUD also encourages interested members of the public to respond to 
the ``30-day'' PRA notice that was published on January 29, 2007.

    Dated: January 31, 2007.
A. Bryant Applegate,
Senior Counsel and Director of America's Affordable Communities 
Initiative.
[FR Doc. E7-1904 Filed 2-5-07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4210-67-P