Small Public Housing Authority Act

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3067, the Small Public Housing Authority Act.

Like many of my colleagues, I represent a rural district where most of the public housing authorities operate in small communities. In fact, many of the PHAs in my district administer fewer than 200 housing units and some even have part-time directors or directors who split their time between public housing authorities. For many of those small public housing authorities, excessive paperwork requirements and outdated regulatory burdens continue to create an unnecessary distraction from their important work of providing affordable housing for underprivileged families.

For example, the 1992 Public Housing Reform Act requires PHAs to submit both a 5-year and an annual plan to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. While the annual plans were designed to address changes to the 5-year plan, small PHAs are already required by law to submit any policy changes, as the gentleman from Massachusetts said, to HUD for review and approval. This yearly report of unchanged plans and policy amounts to an unnecessary Federal mandate. While HUD has taken regulatory steps to streamline this annual reporting for small PHAs that are performing well, a recent example of one of the streamlined plans was 47 pages with attachments. So small public housing authorities just do not have the time and the staff and the resources to complete these annual plans by themselves and in many cases have to use outside vendors or contractors, expensive consultants to do the work that they don't have the computer software to do themselves to complete these annual plans.

For this reason, I have introduced H.R. 3067, the Small Public Housing Act. This legislation would bring long-needed regulatory relief to our small PHAs by exempting those that are 250 fewer units and section 8 vouchers from continuing the requirement of an annual plan if there is no material change in the operations during that year. So if they have some material change they still have to do it, but if it is just business as usual, then they do not have to make that submission. They still have to submit their 5-year plan, as is required by law.

H.R. 3067 only addresses, as I said, the annual plans. This legislation will provide an opportunity where they don't have to spend their much-needed resources and time away from doing what they need to be doing, and that is helping to provide affordable housing for our most needy folks.

I would just want to thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for his interest in public housing. This bill passed overwhelmingly in the previous Congress. Unfortunately, the time ran out, and we did not get that done from the other body. As a matter of fact, it passed 387-2; so I think there is broad support for this. I appreciate Chairwoman Waters' Housing Subcommittee as well as Ranking Member Biggert and, of course, Ranking Member Bachus for their support for this legislation.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3067) to amend the United States Housing Act of 1937 to exempt small public housing agencies from the requirement of preparing an annual public housing agency plan, as amended.

Madam Speaker, I ask that all Members have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on this bill and include therein any extraneous material.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

This is a bill that was brought forward in the previous Congress by the gentleman from Texas. It is very important that we regulate when necessary; it is equally important that we not regulate when it is unnecessary. This is an example of our recognition of that principle.

We have rules that govern housing authorities. These are complex and difficult issues that housing authorities face. But one set of rules should not be made to fit all. Smaller housing authorities ought to have more flexibility than the larger housing authorities. This bill, brought forward by the gentleman from Texas, and I congratulate him for his persistence in calling this to the attention of the committee, acts on that principle.

It exempts from excessive regulation, but not entirely from regulation, smaller housing authorities. In particular, I would just say that there was a rule for example that plans be made every 5 years and in some cases housing authorities have to report on certain things every year. In this case what we would say is that the smaller housing authorities would file their plan every 5 years and only if there are any changes of any significance in the covered matters would they have to report again. So it would save a lot of time, energy, and paperwork for the smaller housing authorities. It will help these people with the difficult job that they do.

I thank the gentleman for bringing the bill forward.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I thank the staffs of the majority and minority, who worked very well together on this, as they do on many bills

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3067, the Small Public Housing Authority Act.

Like many of my colleagues, I represent a rural district where most of the Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) operate in small communities. These small PHAs face excessive paperwork requirements and outdated regulatory burdens which undermine their ability to provide affordable housing to underprivileged families.

Currently, all PHAs are required to submit both 5-year and annual plans to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD. However, these PHAs do not have the time, staff or resources to complete these annual plans and often have to hire expensive consultants to help complete these annual plans.

I am pleased that my friend, Mr. Neugebauer from Texas, has taken the steps needed to alleviate this burden on small PHAs by introducing H.R. 3067, the Small PHA Act. This legislation will bring long needed regulatory relief to small PHAs by exempting those with 250 or fewer public housing units and Section 8 vouchers from the requirement of submitting an annual plan to HUD.

Today, I urge my colleagues to once again support regulatory relief for small PHAs by supporting H.R. 3067.