On July 27, the House of Representatives approved a $58.8 billion supplemental appropriations bill for FY2010. The Senate adopted the measure on July 22. President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law.

The bill primarily contains funding for continued military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and disaster assistance funding for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The bill allows the Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Section 502 Single Family Rural Housing Guaranteed Loan program to continue operating through the end of FY2010 by increasing the annual commitment authority for the program by as much as necessary to meet loan demand. The program ran out of funds in May due to high demand.

The measure provides USDA the authority to increase the program’s current two percent up-front fee to up to 3.5 percent and impose an annual fee of up to 0.5 percent to make the program self-funding. USDA has said it would need to raise the up-front fee to approximately 3.5 percent to make the program self-sustaining and does not expect to implement the annual fee until FY2011.

The bill would also allow USDA to waive fees for very low- and low-income borrowers, not to exceed $697 million in loan guarantees.

For more information, contact MHI Vice President of Government Affairs Jason Boehlert at 703-558-0660 or jboehlert@mfghome.org.