NLIHC on current budget agonies and more

S'morning's NLIHC Memo to Members reviews the current early-budget-season posturing including a couple more sign-on letters circulating in Congress, (1) asking that the Sec. 8 voucher program not be backhandedly revised in Appropriations but that any proposed changes be brought up properly in House Financial services (143 House signatures so far), and (2) Asking to please have back the Sec. 515 rural housing budget (24 House signatures so far), which the White House budget proposal calls for funding at the level of zilch.

They also note that Secretary Alphonso Jackson will testify alone before House Financial Services on the HUD budget this coming Thursday, and that afternoon the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs subcommittee on Housing and Transportation has a hearing on McKinney-Vento reauthorization and "consolidation of HUD's homeless programs" with testimony scheduled from Deputy Secretary Roy Bernardi and federal homelessness czar Phil Mangano among others.

Among the further items, NLIHC has prepared a detailed summary on the substance of the March 21 rule for cost comparisons in converting public housing to tenant-based subsidies.

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In other Monday morning madness, there's not much to write home about in today's Federal Register unless you have been awarded part of HUD's $23.7 million in fiscal 2005 Rural Housing and Economic Development grants, in which case congratulations to you.