EXCERPT FROM HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT [Public Law 95-557; 92 Stat. 2115; 42 U.S.C. 8101] TITLE VI-NEIGHBORHOOD REINVESTMENT CORPORATION SHORT TITLE SEC. 601. This title may be cited as the "Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation Act". FINDINGS AND PURPOSE SEC. 602. (a) The Congress finds that— (1) the neighborhood housing services demonstration of the Urban Reinvestment Task Force has proven its worth as a successful program to revitalize older urban neighborhoods by mobilizing public, private, and community resources at the neighborhood level; and (2) the demand for neighborhood housing services programs in cities throughout the United States warrants the creation of a public corporation to institutionalize and expand the neighborhood housing services program and other programs of the present Urban Reinvestment Task Force. (b) The purpose of this title is to establish a public corporation which will continue the joint efforts of the Federal financial supervisory agencies and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to promote reinvestment in older neighborhoods by local financial institutions working cooperatively with the community people and local government, and which will continue the nonbureaucratic approach of the Urban Reinvestment Task Force, relying largely on local initiative for the specific design of local programs. ESTABLISHMENT OF CORPORATION SEC. 603. (a) There is established a Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation (hereinafter referred to as the "corporation") which shall be a body corporate and shall possess the powers and shall be subject to the direction and limitations specified herein. (b) The corporation shall implement and expand the demonstration activities carried out by the Urban Reinvestment Task Force. (c) The corporation shall maintain its principal office in the District of Columbia or at such other place the corporation may from time to time prescribe. (d) The corporation, including its franchise, activities, assets, and income, shall be exempt from all taxation now or hereafter imposed by the United States, by any territory, dependency, or possession thereof, or by any State, county, municipality, or local taxing authority, except that any real property of the corporation shall be subject to State, territorial, county, municipal, or local taxation to the same extent according to its value as other real property is taxed. BOARD OF DIRECTORS; ESTABLISHMENT SEC. 604. (a) The corporation shall be under the direction of a board of directors made up of the following members: (1) the Chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board; (3) a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, to be designated by the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; (4) the Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; (5) the Comptroller of the Currency; and (6) the Administrator of the National Credit Union Administration. (b) The Board shall elect from among its members a chairman who shall serve for a term of two years, except that the Chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board shall serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors for the first such two-year term. (c) Each director of the corporation shall serve ex officio during the period he holds the office to which he is appointed by the President. (d) The directors of the corporation, as full-time officers of the United States, shall serve without additional compensation but shall be reimbursed for travel, subsistence, and other necessary expenses incurred in the performance of their duties as directors of the corporation. (e) The directors of the corporation shall adopt such bylaws, policies, and administrative provisions as are necessary to the functioning of the corporation and consistent with the provisions of this title. (f) A director who is necessarily absent from a meeting of the board, or of a committee of the board, may participate in such meeting through a duly designated representative who is serving, pursuant to appointment by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, in the same department, agency, corporation, or instrumentality as the absent director, or in the case of the Comptroller of the Currency, through a duly designated Deputy Comptroller. (g) The presence of a majority of the board members, or their representatives as provided in subsection (f), shall constitute a quorum. (h) The corporation shall be subject to the provisions of section 552 of title 5, United States Code. (i) All meetings of the board of directors will be conducted in accordance with the provisions of section 552b of title 5, United States Code. OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES SEC. 605. (a) The board shall have power to select, employ, and fix the compensation and benefits of such officers, employees, attorneys, and agents as shall be necessary for the performance of its duties under this title, without regard to the provisions of title 5, United States Code, governing appointments in the competitive service, classification, and General Schedule pay rates, except that no officer, employee, attorney, or agent of the corporation may be paid compensation at a rate in excess of the highest rate provided for GS-18 of the General Schedule under section 5352 of title 5, United States Code. (b) The directors of the corporation shall appoint an executive director who shall serve as chief executive officer of the corporation. (c) The executive director of the corporation, subject to approval by the board, may appoint and remove such employees of the corporation as he determines necessary to carry out the purposes of the corporation. (d) No political test or political qualification shall be used in selecting, appointing, promoting, or taking any other personnel action with respect to any officer, agent, or employee of the corporation or of any recipient, or in selecting or monitoring any grantee, contractor, or person or entity receiving financial assistance under this title. (e) Officers and employees of the corporation shall not be considered officers or employees of the United States, and the corporation shall not be considered a department, agency, or instrumentality of the Federal Government. The corporation shall be subject to administrative and cost standards issued by the Office of Management and Budget similar to standards applicable to non-profit grantees and educational institutions. POWERS AND DUTIES SEC. 606. (a)(1) The corporation shall continue the work of the Urban Reinvestment Task Force in establishing neighborhood housing services programs in neighborhoods throughout the United States, monitoring their progress, and providing them with grants and technical assistance. For the purpose of this paragraph, a neighborhood housing services program may involve a partnership of neighborhood residents and representatives of local governmental and financial institutions, organized as a State-chartered nonprofit corporation, working to bring about reinvestment in one or more neighborhoods through a program of systematic housing inspections, increased public investment, increased private lending, increased resident investment, and a revolving loan fund to make loans available at flexible rates and terms to homeowners not meeting private lending criteria. (2) The corporation shall continue the work of the Urban Reinvestment Task Force in identifying, monitoring, evaluating, and providing grants and technical assistance to selected neighborhood preservation projects which show promise as mechanisms for reversing neighborhood decline and improving the quality of neighborhood life. (3) The corporation shall experimentally replicate neighborhood preservation projects which have demonstrated success, and after creating reliable development processes, bring the new programs to neighborhoods throughout the United States which in the judgment of the corporation can benefit therefrom, by providing assist ance in organizing programs, providing grants in partial support of program costs, and providing technical assistance to ongoing programs. (4) The corporation shall continue the work of the Urban Reinvestment Task Force in supporting Neighborhood Housing Services of America, a nonprofit corporation established to provide services to local neighborhood housing services programs, with support which may include technical assistance and grants to expand its national loan purchase pool and may contract with it for services which it can perform more efficiently or effectively than the corporation. (5) The corporation shall, in making and providing the foregoing grants and technical and other assistance, determine the reporting and management restrictions or requirements with which the re cipients of such grants or other assistance must comply. In making such determinations, the corporation shall assure that recipients of grants and other assistance make available to the corporation such information as may be necessary to determine compliance with applicable Federal laws. (b) To carry out the foregoing purposes and engage in the foregoing activities, the corporation is authorized (1) to adopt, alter, and use a corporate seal; (2) to have succession, until dissolved by Act of Congress; (3) to make and perform contracts, agreements, and commitments; (4) to sue and be sued, complain and defend, in any State, Federal, or other court; (5) to determine its necessary expenditures and the manner in which the same shall be incurred, allowed, and paid, and appoint, employ, and fix and provide for the compensation of consultants, without regard to any other law, except as provided in section 608(d); (6) to settle, adjust, and compromise, and with or without compensation or benefit to the corporation to release or waive in whole or in part, in advance or otherwise, any claim, demand, or right of, by, or against the corporation; (7) to invest such funds of the corporation in such investment as the board of directors may describe; (8) to acquire, take, hold, and own, and to deal with and dispose of any property; and (9) to exercise all other powers that are necessary and proper to carry out the purposes of this title. (c)(1) The corporation may contract with the Office of Neighborhood Reinvestment of the Federal home loan banks for all staff, services, facilities, and equipment now or in the future furnished by the Office of Neighborhood Reinvestment to the Urban Reinvestment Task Force, including receiving the services of the Director of the Office of Neighborhood Reinvestment as the corporation's executive director. (2) The corporation shall have the power to award contracts and grants to (A) neighborhood housing services corporations and other nonprofit corporations engaged in neighborhood preservation activities; and (B) local governmental bodies. (3) The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and the Federal home loan banks, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Reserve banks, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Comptroller of the Currency, the National Credit Union Administration or any other department, agency, or other instrumentality of the Federal Government are authorized to provide funds, services and facilities, with or without reimbursement, necessary to achieve the objectives and to carry out the purposes to this title. (d)(1) The corporation shall have no power to issue any shares of stocks, or to declare or pay any dividends. (2) No part of the income or assets of the corporation shall inure to the benefit of any director, officer, or employee, except as reasonable compensation for services or reimbursement for expenses. (3) The corporation may not contribute to or otherwise support any political party or candidate for elective public office. REPORTS AND AUDITS SEC. 607. (a) The corporation shall publish an annual report which shall be transmitted by the corporation to the President and the Congress. (b) The accounts of the corporation shall be audited annually. Such audits shall be conducted in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards by independent certified public accountants who are certified by a regulatory authority of the jurisdiction in which the audit is undertaken. (c) In addition to the annual audit, the financial transactions of the corporation for any fiscal year during which Federal funds are available to finance any portion of its operations may be audited by the General Accounting Office in accordance with such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the Comptroller General of the United States. The financial transactions of the corporation shall be audited by the General Accounting Office at least once during each three years. (d) For any fiscal year during which Federal funds are available to finance any portion of the corporation's grants or contracts, the General Accounting Office, in accordance with such rules and regulations may be prescribed by the Comptroller General of the United States, may audit the grantees or contractors of the corporation. (e) The corporation shall conduct or require each grantee or contractor to provide for an annual financial audit. The report of each such audit shall be maintained for a period of at least five years at the principal office of the corporation. AUTHORIZATION SEC. 608. (a) There are authorized to be appropriated to the corporation to carry out this title not to exceed $16,512,000 for fiscal year 1984, and such sums as may be necessary for fiscal year 1985. (b) Funds appropriated pursuant to this section shall remain available until expended. |