Thomas Mott Osborne: “I rise in support of H.R. 27, which was introduced by the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Bereuter). There are over 50…”

“I rise in support of H.R. 27, which was introduced by the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Bereuter). There are over 50 small public housing authorities in my district that will benefit from this legislation. My district is almost entirely rural. Most of these PHAs are very, very small, and so we have the vast majority in this particular district. This legislation is needed to simply provide some regulatory burden relief to small PHAs which do not have the time or staff or resources to do housing and urban development plans by themselves. Many of these PHAs have only a part-time executive director, and they hire consultants. Sometimes these PHAs are spending $600 to $1,000 a year just for a consultant's fee, and the complexity and length of the reports are ridiculous for the size of the PHA. If a small PHA in my district is able to create the report, they often have difficulty in filing that report because the Internet dial-up systems are extremely slow, and often they are disconnected before their reports are filed.”