SUBCOMMITTEE ON HOUSING AND URBAN AFFAIRS WILLIAM PROXMIRE, Wisconsin JOHN TOWER, Texas EDWARD W. BROOKE, Massachusetts CARL A. S. COAN, Staff Director (II) 14 de 73 Mse/3 27 Dec 73 James T. Lynn, Secretary, Department of Housing and Urban Develop- ment; accompanied by Floyd H. Hyde, Under Secretary; Michael Moskow, Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research; James Mitchell, General Counsel; Sheldon Lubar, FHA Commissioner; Dan Kearney, Deputy to Mr. Lubar; H. R. Crawford, Assistant Secre- tary for Housing Management; David Meeker, Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development; Gloria Toote, Assistant Secre- tary for Equal Opportunity; Sol Mosher, Assistant Secretary for Legis- lative Affairs; and Al Kliman, Deputy Director, Office of the Budget.. Panel from the United States Conference of Mayors composed of: Mayor Joseph Alioto, city of San Francisco, Calif., vice president, Kennon V. Rothchild, chairman, Washington office, Mortgage Bankers Association; accompanied by Lee B. Holmes, legislative counsel. Anthony R. Henry, on behalf of the National Tenants Organization; ac- Gus C. Cramer, executive vice president, Communications Workers of America; accompanied by Hall Sisson, legislative staff.. Barlow Burke, Jr., associate professor of law, American University Law Winfield Dunn, Governor of the State of Tennessee, representing the National Governors Conference; accompanied by Joseph H. Torrence, acting executive director of the Tennessee Housing Development Agency; and Richard W. Lincoln, special assistant, National Governors Con- Norman Strunk, vice president, United States Savings and Loan League.. George C. Martin, on behalf of the National Association of Home Builders; Robert W. Maffin, the National Association of Housing and Redevelop- ment Officials; accompanied by: Mary Nenno and John Maguire.... ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS AND DATA American Bankers Association, statement and news release on home Boston Housing Authority, statement of John P. Connolly, commissioner. Housing and Urban Development Department, answers to written ques- Page 341 306 376 Reprint from Housing Starts Bulletin.. 273 National Governors' Conference: Letter to HUD from Daniel J. Evans, chairman. 214 215 National Realty Committee, statement of Maurice S. Paprin, chairman, 328 New Brunswick, N.J., letter from Mayor Patricia Q. Sheehan. 83 U.S. Conference of Mayors, answers to written questions of Senator Taft. ADMINISTRATION'S 1973 HOUSING PROPOSALS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1973 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON BANKING, HOUSING AND URBAN AFFAIRS, Washington, D.C. The committee met at 10:10 a.m. in room 5302, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Senator John Sparkman [chairman of the committee] presiding. Present: Senators Sparkman, Proxmire, Williams, Stevenson, Biden, Tower, Taft, Packwood, Brooke, and Weicker. The CHAIRMAN. Let the committee come to order, please. The Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, starting today, is conducting 3 days of hearings on the administration's proposed housing legislation for 1973 which was received by the Congress only yesterday. This legislation is long overdue. We had hoped to have it last spring. In fact, when this new session of Congress opened, the leadership wanted early work on a comprehensive housing bill and I had announced that we might get it out in April, but we had a new Secretary and he said he would have to have time to work up legislation. We tried to push him to a June date but he said the best he could do was September. We would have made it in September if the last day had not been on Sunday, I guess, but, Mr. Secretary, we are glad to have you here this morning. Now that we have the administration's proposals, we intend to move forward as rapidly as possible toward marking up a comprehensive bill for passage in the Senate, hopefully by the end of this month. We have not had a comprehensive housing bill approved by the Congress since 1970. This is unfortunate, because there are many provisions in existing law which are outdated and unworkable. Now, new approaches which would consolidate the community development categorical programs and simplify outdated housing laws were considered in the Congress for 2 years before being approved in a bill which passed the Senate last year. Unfortunately, the bill did not clear the House before adjournment and so another year has gone by without corrective legislation. The committee was prepared to press forward with legislation early this year but, as we all know, the President's moratorium on housing programs announced on January 5 called a halt to developing a new bill. I have expressed myself many times before on the subject of the moratorium. To me it is an unjustifiable use of executive power which has seriously slowed down our effort to reach the national goal of a decent, safe, and sanitary house for every American family. (1) While the administration was studying the programs, this conmittee ran nearly 3 weeks of oversight hearings. These hearings were intended to get at the facts and learn from the public the serious impact the moratorium has had on the housing and urban development efforts. Two weeks of oversight hearings were held in Washington and several days each in Chicago and in Toledo, Ohio. Later, in July, we had 2 more weeks of legislative hearings. The subsidy programs received overwhelming support from our witnesses and urged that everything be done to free the funds and reinstate them. They frankly told us about weaknesses of the programs and made recommendations for changes but insisted that they were basically sound and should be continued. The year of 1973 has been a frustrating experience for all of us in housing. Ever since the January 5 freeze of funds we have done very little in a productive way to advance toward our housing goals. Our constituency has pleaded with us to intervene with the President and we have done our best with less than complete success. The FHA extension bill which should have been an easy legislative effort to keep the existing programs in business turned out to be a most time-consuming, frustrating experience. We finally passed the bill last night and sent it to the President for signature after agreeing to delete several important provisions on which the executive branch refused to negotiate any reasonable compromise. We are facing another challenge with the bill sent to us yesterday by the administration. I am afraid we are far apart in our thinking from that of the administration. The committee starts working next week to mark up a comprehensive bill. We believe we have the makings for developing a new approach, wrapping together community development with housing. Prerequisite with this, however, is housing for low- and moderateincome families. We must, therefore, have subsidy programs for this purpose. Thus, I see an immediate conflict with the administration which is calling for a cash payment program possibly several years away. I hope that we can work together with the administration to arrive. at a reasonable compromise of our different positions. I believe it can be done if we work at it. We have before us today Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Mr. James Lynn, who I know has been working hard to try to get a program that we could satisfactorily work on. We want to hear from him but, more than ever, I hope Mr. Secretary that you can tell us today how you see us working out a program that will be mutually satisfactory to both the executive and legislative branches of our Government, both on the short run, through fiscal year 1974 and on the long run for fiscal year 1975 and the years that will come thereafter. Senator Tower, you stated you had a statement you wanted to make. Senator TOWER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am delighted that we are finally initiating hearings on the administration's proposed housing programs and taking the opportunity to review the results of 6 years of study by HUD as to why the programs presently on the books are defective. From what I can gather, some have been found to be defective in fact and others not. |