Lloyd Bentsen: “First of all, I think the point the chairman makes and the author of the amendment makes is this should not be handled…”

“First of all, I think the point the chairman makes and the author of the amendment makes is this should not be handled in an appropriations bill. The Committee on Financial Services ought to be looking at this. If FHA wants to raise the fees, it ought to come under the Federal Credit Reform Act, and that is where it ought to be dealt with. Second of all, the reason why I support the gentleman's amendment, and there is a lot of confusion of how these credit subsidy programs work, and the chairman is well aware of how they work, he understands how they work, but there is a problem in the (d)(4) program and in the (d)(3) program, and part of the problem is that Congress appropriated money for the current fiscal year, but part of that had emergency designation. The Office of Management and Budget has held up that money, and that is why the program is not working at this point in time. In my State, and I would assume in most States, there are a lot of projects, nonprofit projects, that utilize both the (d)(3) and can utilize the (d)(4) program, which have been shut down, and that affects the housing stock for middle-income and lower-income families around the country.”