The President’s proposed FY12 budget, released on February 14, includes $1 billion as the initial capitalization for the NHTF. It is proposed as part of the HUD budget, but listed as a mandatory expenditure, one that does not compete with the other HUD programs that are funded through appropriations. This year’s proposal repeats what was proposed in the previous two budgets submitted by President Obama. The NHTF was not funded in either of those budget processes.
To be successful, the $1 billion will have to be “offset” by a cut somewhere else in the mandatory budget. The FY12 budget did not provide an offset. HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan said that the Administration will look for opportunities to offset the $1 billion as larger bills emerge that may provide such an offset. Offsets will likely be found in tax legislation.
The NHTF Campaign distributed a memo to NHTF endorsers from NLIHC President Sheila Crowley that detailed the two actions by the Obama Administration in the last week toward funding the NHTF. One is the $1 billion in the FY12 budget; the other is the reference to the NHTF in the Administration’s “white paper” on the future of housing finance (see Memo, 2/11).
To read the memo, go to http://nlihc.org/template/page.cfm?id=40