The Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday easily approved a $36.1 billion spending package for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that includes full funding to renew expiring tenant-based Section 8 vouchers.
The $36.1 billion funding level is $157.6 million over the level President Bush requested and $877 million over the level that Congress approved for the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
But the $36.1 billion figure is also below the $37 billion level in HUD funding that the House approved in late July.
The spending package, which committee members approved on a voice vote, includes $18.4 billion in funding for both tenant-based Section 8 vouchers and project-based vouchers but the distribution of funds between the two programs was unclear at press time.
Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., chairman of the committee's panel on HUD, said at yesterday's meeting that the funds provided in the spending bill would be sufficient to renew all expiring tenant-based Section 8 vouchers.
The House approved $12.2 billion in funding for the tenant-based vouchers in the summer, which is $910 million more than the level Congress approved for fiscal 2003. Both Senate and House appropriators have rejected the Bush administration's proposal to convert the Section 8 program into a state-run block grant program called Housing Assistance for Needy Families.
State and local housing finance agencies often use Section 8 housing assistance contracts to secure the bond financing for multifamily housing projects.
The spending package, which also includes funding for veterans' program, space exploration, and the Environmental Protection Agency, provides $850 million in funding for clean water state revolving funds, which is $500 million more than Bush requested.
The bill also includes $850 million in funding for the drinking water state revolving fund program, which is equal to the president's request and the same as the level that Congress approved for the current fiscal year.
