On July 29, the House of Representatives approved its version of the FY2011 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies Appropriations bill (H.R. 5850). The Senate Appropriations Committee approved its bill on July 22.

The House measure provides a total of $67.4 billion in discretionary resources, a cut of $500 million under current spending and $1.3 billion less than the administration’s request. It is unclear when the bill will come up for floor consideration.

For the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the bill provides $49.4 billion in funding, an increase of nearly $2.5 billion. Within this amount, $7 million is appropriated to the Manufactured Housing Fees Trust Fund, a reduction of $2 million under current funding. A total of up to $21 million is recommended for the manufactured housing standards program.

To sustain the program, the administration is proposing an increase of the per unit label fee from $39 to approximately $49 for each transportable unit in order to raise approximately $4 million at projected rates of production.

The House measure also contains report language indicating that the committee “recognizes that the manufactured housing industry has been impacted greatly by the subprime and unemployment crises that plague the housing sector. However, this sector of the housing market has not gotten a great deal of attention from HUD, as evidenced by the lack of a proposed rule in this account, and several key vacancies in this office. The Committee urges HUD to focus on this portion of the housing market and to issue the final rule and mortgagee letter that will enable this sector of the housing market to begin recovery.”

For more information, contact MHI Vice President of Government Affairs Jason Boehlert at jboehlert@mfghome.org.