Timothy Roemer: “as a long-time advocate and co-sponsor of the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act, I rise in support of this bill…”

“as a long-time advocate and co-sponsor of the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act, I rise in support of this bill today. S. 1029 makes a very important technical correction that effectively prevents the Department of Housing and Urban Development's manufactured housing program from being unintentionally de-funded. Last year, Congress finally enacted important reforms to the federal government's manufactured housing program as part of the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act. That program, administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, is financed through fees collected from the manufactured housing industry. Prior to last year's reforms, HUD was authorized to spend these collected funds at its own discretion. However, the new law made this spending subject to appropriations. Since the new manufactured housing law was passed after the FY 2001 VA-HUD Appropriations Act had been signed into law, OMB determined that the appropriations measure did not include any provisions addressing HUD's use of collected manufactured housing fees. Consequently, HUD has continued collecting the fees but is unable to spend any of the funds it has collected since the manufactured housing reforms were enacted in late December. Without authority to spend those funds, HUD has indicated that it may be forced to shut down its program soon.”