Publisher's Synopsis
The President's FY2015 budget requested $46.7 billion in gross discretionary appropriations for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), not accounting for savings from offsets and other sources. This was about $1 billion more than the amount provided in FY2014. Net budget authority takes into account rescissions and offsets from receipts and collections. In FY2015, offsets as estimated in the President's budget were largely attributable to receipts from the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan insurance program. The President's budget estimated FHA receipts of $13 billion compared to not-quite $12 billion in FY2014. However, the President's estimates of FHA receipts are re-estimated by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and the CBO numbers are the ones used by congressional appropriators for determining budget authority. CBO estimated that offsetting receipts from FHA in FY2015 would be $9 billion, about $4 billion dollars less than the amount estimated in the President's budget. After the President's request is adjusted to reflect CBO's estimates of offsetting collections and receipts, net budget authority would be $36.9 billion (compared to $32.8 billion in FY2014). Among the programs proposed for increased funding under the President's budget request were Section 8 tenant-based rental assistance (an increase of more than 4%), the Homeless Assistance Grants (an increase of 14%), the Public Housing Operating Fund (more than 4%) and Capital Fund (nearly 3%), and Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly (nearly 15%) and Section 811 Housing for Persons with Disabilities (27%). However, in most cases, funding for these programs would largely support renewals of existing rental assistance contracts. Programs proposed for decreased funding included the Community Development Block Grant program (more than 7%), and the HOME Investment Partnerships Program (5%). For FY2014 enacted and FY2015 proposed funding levels, see Table 2. The House Appropriations Committee approved H.R. 4745, its version of the Departments of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) appropriations bill, on May 27, 2014. Two weeks later, on June 10, 2014, the full House approved the bill, with amendments, though none changed the total amount of funding the bill would provide for HUD. The bill would provide approximately $44.7 billion in gross appropriations, a decrease of about $800 million compared to FY2014 and about $2 billion compared to the President's budget request. After accounting for offsetting collections and receipts, H.R. 4745 would provide $35.0 billion in net budget authority.
