H.R. 861 (112^th): NSP Termination Act

GovTrack’s Bill Summary

We don’t have a summary available yet.

Library of Congress Summary

The summary below was written by the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan division of the Library of Congress.

House Republican Conference Summary

The summary below was written by the House Republican Conference, which is the caucus of Republicans in the House of Representatives.

This summary can be found at http://www.gop.gov/bill/112/1/hr861.

Background

The Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) provides taxpayer dollars to state and local governments to purchase, renovate, rebuild, and resell abandoned and foreclosed property.  Democrats funded the NSP with $4 billion in the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (the GSE bailout bill), followed by another $1.93 billion in funding through the 2009 Obama stimulus plan, and another $1 billion in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act.  The program has been plagued with problems since its inception.  The Inspector General for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has identified multiple cases of misused NSP funds, and GAO has detailed HUD’s inadequate tracking of NSP funds.

Summary

The legislation would rescind and permanently cancel all unobligated balances made available by section 1497(a) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for assistance to states and local governments for the redevelopment of abandoned and foreclosed homes and residential properties—the third round of funding for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

Additionally, this legislation would repeal emergency FY2008 appropriations for the program made available by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008.

The legislation would direct that any remaining funds made available for the program by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (“Stimulus”) of 2009, shall continue to be governed by any provisions of law applicable to such amounts as in effect before the date of enactment of this Act.

Lastly, the legislation would direct the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to terminate the program upon the obligation of all such amounts referenced above and outlays to liquidate them.

Cost

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the legislation would not affect direct spending, based on an assumption of enactment in summer 2011.  A footnote in the CBO's report states: "If the bill was enacted sooner, or if the pace of obligations was slower than anticipated, some unobligated balances may remain at the time of enactment. In that case, the budget authority of the NSP would be reduced by the amount of unobligated balances, resulting in a corresponding decrease in direct spending."

House Democratic Caucus Summary

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