Rita relief waivers at HUD

HUD's Public and Indian Housing sub-page is full of new material, most prominently a notice that issues some regulatory waivers for Hurricane Rita automatically but mainly provides a menu of further waivers that local governments can request by email using a provided checklist. (HUDCLIPS also has a copy of the Rita waiver notice.) These documents are similar to a waiver-and-checklist set issued a month ago for Hurricane Katrina relief (see descriptions here and here). A note at the PIH site says the Katrina checklist from that earlier pair has been updated.

PIH further notes it has revised its regulatory impact analysis of the final rule revising the Public Housing Operating Fund Program. The document is posted with an Oct. 18 revision date. As you'll recall, the final rule appeared in September and was revised Oct. 24 by "corrections" delaying the effect of the new operating fund formula until 2007. In the regulatory impact analysis text, don't miss the p. 13 analogy between property maintenance and chocolates via the economic theory of diminishing marginal utility.