Sponsors to Reintroduce Several Housing Bills; Measures Failed to Pass 100th Congress
Several bills designed to preserve low-income housing and help first-time home buyers died when Congress recessed three weeks ago, but the sponsors of most of those bills plan to introduce the measures again when the 101st Congress convenes in January.</br></br>Hopes for strengthened consumer credit protections also ended when a dispute between two House committees prevented a floor vote on the banking deregulation bill that contained the reform measures. Supporters of the legislation said efforts will be made to resolve differences over the bill so that it can be reintroduced. Several provisions in the bill are intended to prod lenders into extending credit and banking services more widely in low-income communities.</br></br>Legislation not passed by both houses when Congress adjourns is effectively killed. Bills must be reintroduced in the next session if their sponsors want to resuscitate them. In some cases, however, committee hearings held in the previous session of Congress are not repeated.</br></br>Construction and rehabilitation of housing for poor people and the homeless would be authorized by several pieces of legislation that their sponsors plan to reintroduce. An affordable housing bill providing $15 billion a year for five years to acquire, renovate or build 7.5 million housing units was introduced last July and referred to the House committees on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs and on Ways and Means. Its sponsor, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), regarded the introduction of the measure in the last session as "a foundation for later efforts" and will reintroduce the bill again next year, an aide said.</br></br>Another Massachusetts Democrat, Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II, plans to reintroduce a measure authorizing $500 million a year in grants to subsidize low-income rental housing development and some homeownership opportunities for families with incomes below 115 percent of area medians. The legislation says that funds provided by the bill must be matched by at least $1 to every $3 by state or local governments, or private groups.