1 2 149 COUNSELING AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE SEC. 305. (a) Section 106 of the Housing and Urban 3 Development Act of 1968 is amended by rewriting the head4 ing to read as follows: "TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE, COUNSEL 5 ING TO TENANTS AND HOMEOWNERS, AND LOANS TO NON 6 PROFIT SPONSORS OF LOW- AND 7 HOUSING". 8 MODERATE-INCOME (b) Section 106 (a) (1) (iii) of such Act is amended 9 to read as follows: 10 11 12 233 13 14 14 "(iii) the provision of training and counseling programs (including preoccupancy programs) for lowand moderate-income tenants and homeowners, including but not limited to, housing selection and purchase procedures, family budgeting, property use and main 15 tenance, household management, and utilization of community resources; and". 16 17 19 (c) Section 106 (a) (1) of such Act is amended by 18 adding at the end thereof the following new subparagraph: "(iv) the provision of technical assistance to communities, particularly smaller communities, to assist such 21 communities in planning, developing, and administering Community Development and Housing Assistance Pro 20 223 22 22 23 24 25 gram pursuant to title I of the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1973." (d) Section 106 (a) (2) of such Act is amended by 150 1 striking out "$5,000,000" and inserting in lieu thereof 2 "$40,000,000". 3 4 EXPENDITURES TO CORRECT OR COMPENSATE FOR DEFECTS IN MORTGAGED HOMES 5 6 SEC. 306. (a) Section 518 (b) of the National Housing Act is amended to read as follows: "(b) If the owner of any one- to two-family dwelling 7 8 which is covered by a mortgage insured under section 221 9 (d) (2) or 235 or which is located in an older, declining 10 urban area and is covered by a mortgage insured under this 11 Act, and which is more than one year old on the date of 12 the issuance of the insurance commitment, makes applica13 tion to the Secretary not more than one year after the in14 surance of the mortgage (or, in the case of a dwelling 15 covered by a mortgage the insurance commitment for which 16 was issued on or after August 1, 1968, but prior to the 17 date of the enactment of the Housing and Urban Develop18 ment Act of 1973, one year after the date of the enactment 19 of such Act) to correct any structural or other defect which 20 seriously affects its use or livability, the Secretary shall, with 21 all reasonable promptness, make expenditures for any of the 22 purposes specified in subsection (a), unless the defect is one 23 that did not exist on the date of the issuance of the insurance 24 commitment or is not one that a proper inspection could 25 reasonably have been expected to disclose. The Secretary 151 1 may require from the seller of any such dwelling an agree2 ment to reimburse him for any payments made pursuant to 3 the subsection with respect to such dwelling." 4 (b) Section 518 of such Act is amended by adding at 5 the end thereof the following new subsection: 6 "(d) Expenditures made pursuant to this section shall 7 be made from the General Insurance Fund. There are 8 authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be needed 9 from time to time to compensate the Fund for expenditures or anticipated expenditures under this section.' 10 93D CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 7277 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APRIL 19, 1973 Mr. WIDNALL (for himself, Mr. JOHNSON of Pennsylvania, Mr. J. WILLIAM STANTON, Mr. BLACKBURN, Mr. BROWN of Michigan, Mr. WILLIAMS, Mr. WYLIE, Mrs. HECKLER of Massachusetts, Mr. CRANE, Mr. ROUSSELOT, Mr. MCKINNEY, Mr. FRENZEL, Mr. CONLAN, Mr. RONCALLO of New York, Mr. BURGENER, and Mr. RINALDO) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Banking and Currency A BILL To provide Federal revenues to State and local governments and afford them broad discretion in carrying out community development activities. 1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 3 That this Act may be cited as the "Better Communities 4 Act". 5 6 STATEMENT OF FINDINGS AND PURPOSE SEC. 2. (a) The Congress finds and declares that7 (1) States and units of general local government are 8 the most appropriate levels of government to develop and to 9 carry out community development programs and activities. 1 2 (2) Federal assistance for community development is 2 presently so excessively fragmented and controlled at the 3 Federal level, channeled through so many separate over4 lapping and independent grant programs, and to so many 5 different special purpose bodies and agencies that it has 6 become an ineffective use of the Federal funds devoted to 7 assistance for community development. 8 (3) The effectiveness of Federal assistance for com9 munity development would be improved by making Federal 10 resources allocated for such purposes available to States and 11 units of general local government to use with broad discretion 12 in light of their evaluation of their own community development needs and the resources available to them to meet those needs. 13 14 15 16 17 (b) It is therefore the purpose of this Act to help States and units of general local government to deal more effectively with the broad range of community development 18 concerns by replacing inflexible and fragmented categorical 19 programs of Federal assistance with a simpler, more certain, 20 and more expeditious system of Federal revenue sharing 24 25 26 DEFINITIONS SEC. 3. (a) As used in this Act (1) the term "Secretary" means the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; |