April 4, 1977
Page 10178
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, the Senate is now considering S. 1070, the supplemental housing authorization of 1977. This bill authorizes several initiatives that have been proposed by the new Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Patricia Harris, as well as a National Commission on Neighborhoods that has been proposed by the distinguished chairman of the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, Senator PR0XMIRE, and the distinguished Senator from Utah, Mr. GARN.
This bill would authorize the appropriation during the current fiscal year of additional contract authority for assisted housing that would enable the Nation to provide decent homes for as many as 160,000 additional lower income families.
The bill would lengthen the maximum contract term from the present 20 years up to 30 years for privately developed new or substantially rehabilitated section 8 housing. The administration believes that this provision would encourage private lenders to finance the construction of assisted housing without relying on Federal mortgage insurance.
The bill would also authorize a 1-year study of the impact of various Federal policies on our Nation's neighborhoods. This is a more modest version of the bill that passed the Senate during the last session, but failed to be considered on the House floor during the closing hours of the 94th Congress. The work of this commission should be useful in helping us make Federal programs more effective and responsive to the needs of people. Other provisions of this bill would authorize increased payments of operating subsidies to local housing authorities to cover this winter's high fuel costs, a moderate expansion of the urban homesteading program, and the reimbursement of losses in FHA's General Insurance Fund.
Mr. President, I would like to call the Senate's attention to how this bill relates to the third budget resolution for fiscal year 1977, which was adopted by Congress on March 3. That resolution was made necessary because of extraordinary developments in the economy that could not have been foreseen when the second budget resolution was adopted last September. The third budget resolution included room for a significantly expanded commitment to housing subsidy programs, such as that which this bill would authorize.
Enactment of this bill as reported, plus existing authorizations, would permit the appropriation for assisted housing of an additional $13.1 billion in budget authority in fiscal year 1977. Both the Senate and House passed versions of the supplemental appropriations bill, H.R. 4877, provide this $13.1 billion in budget authority for assisted housing.
The spending ceilings established by the third budget resolution are sufficient to cover H.R. 4877, as passed by the Senate last Friday, as well as the emergency stimulus supplemental (H.R. 4876) that has been reported in the Senate and other possible requirements now known. The latest Senate budget scorekeeping report indicates that when these various requirements are taken into account, there will be about $2.3 billion in budget authority and $1.2 billion in outlays remaining within the third budget resolution ceilings.
I would note, however, that these calculations do not assume any additional appropriations for the GNMA emergency mortgage purchase assistance program. It is clear, therefore; that the budget is now very, very tight, and there are still 6 months to go in this fiscal year.
The congressional budget process is facing a severe test. Each Senator must understand that every amendment and every vote that may lead to additional spending will have serious implications for the Congress and its ability to maintain control over the Nation's fiscal policy.
For that reason, I will oppose any amendment which would lead to major increase in funding this fiscal year, since the Budget Committee plans no revisions to the third budget resolution.
I have long believed, Mr. President, that the national goal of a "decent home and a suitable living environment for every American family" must remain one of the most pressing items on the agenda of the Congress. In fact, since the congressional budget process began, the Nation's need for decent housing has consistently been before the Budget Committee as one of the highest national priorities.
I am sure I speak for all my colleagues on the Senate Budget Committee in saying that the Budget Committee supports an effective Federal housing policy. We must not abandon the hope for human dignity and opportunity for every American. We will not relax the effort to fashion public programs that respond to that hope. But we cannot accept the waste of resources on well-intentioned programs that do not meet the needs they are intended to serve.
We in the Congress must carefully evaluate housing programs and make many difficult choices. Housing programs necessarily invoke long term commitments, and our decisions this year will affect the budgets of many future years. Because of this, the place of housing programs within the budget will be a matter of special concern to the Budget Committee in the months ahead. The Senate Budget Committee is now engaged in marking up the first budget resolution for fiscal year 1978 which makes us vividly aware of the pressures of competing national needs.
I know that I am by no means the only Senator who is encouraged that President Carter has attracted very able people to positions of high responsibility for his administration's housing policy. I am pleased that Secretary Harris has launched a major effort to make the existing housing programs work and to assure that every dollar provided by Congress results as quickly as possible in better housing for lower income families.