Department of Housing and Urban Development June 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a), as amended by the Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Act of 1988 (Pub. L. 100-503), and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Guidelines on the Conduct of Matching Programs (54 FR 25818 (June 19, 1989); and OMB Bulletin 89-22, ``Instructions on Reporting Computer Matching Programs to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Congress and the Public,'' HUD is issuing a public notice of its intent to conduct a recurring computer matching program with the Department of Education to utilize a computer information system of HUD, the Credit Alert Interactive Voice Response System (CAIVRS), with the Department of Education's debtor files. This match will allow prescreening of applicants for loans issued by or guaranteed by the federal government to ascertain if the applicant is delinquent in paying a debt owed to or insured by the federal government for HUD or the Department of Education for direct or guaranteed loans. Before granting a loan, the lending agency and/or the authorized lending institution will be able to interrogate the CAIVRS debtor file which contains delinquent debt information from the Departments of Agriculture, Education, Veteran Affairs, the Small Business Administration and judgment lien data from the Department of Justice, and verify that the applicant is not in default on a Federal judgment or delinquent on direct or guaranteed loans of participating Federal agencies. This match will allow prescreening of applicants for loans issued by or guaranteed by the federal government to ascertain if the applicant is delinquent in paying a debt owed to or insured by the federal government. Authorized users do a prescreening of CAIVRS to determine a loan applicant's credit status with the federal government. As a result of the information produced by this match, the authorized users may not deny, terminate, or make a final decision on any loan assistance to an applicant or take other adverse action against such applicant, until an officer or employee of such agency has independently verified such information.

HUD charges an up-front mortgage insurance premium (MIP) for loans that are obligations of its Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, and of its general insurance fund only for insurance in connection with Section 8 homeownership. However, to date there has been no provision for up-front MIPs for loans such as home rehabilitation loans under section 203(k) of the National Housing Act (NHA) and condominium unit loans under section 234(c) which are obligations of the general insurance fund. Recent statutory changes now provide for an up-front MIP for those programs. This rule amends HUD's regulations related to mortgage insurance to conform the regulations to the recent statutory changes. This rule implements the October 7, 2003, proposed rule, with the only change made by this final rule being the proposed effective date.

On December 7, 2004, HUD published a proposed rule proposing to amend HUD's Office of Inspector General's (OIG's) regulations to provide an appellate review procedure regarding the OIG's responses to subpoenas issued to OIG employees requesting documents or testimony in legal proceedings where the OIG is not a party. The establishment of an appellate proceeding is designed to ensure both a thorough review process by the OIG and a complete opportunity for a party or person to take formal exception to the OIG's determination. This final rule follows publication of the December 7, 2004, proposed rule. HUD did not receive any public comments on the proposed rule and, therefore, is adopting the proposed rule without change.

In compliance with section 202(c) of the National Housing Act, this notice advises of the cause and description of certain administrative actions taken by HUD's Mortgagee Review Board against HUD-approved mortgagees. This notice of administrative actions relates solely to the failure of Title I lenders and Title II mortgagees to submit an acceptable annual audited financial statement and/or payment of the annual fee in order to renew their FHA lender approval as part of the annual recertification process.

The proposed information collection requirement described below will be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act. The Department is soliciting public comments on the subject proposal.

The proposed information collection requirement described below will be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act. The Department is soliciting public comments on the subject proposal.

This notice identifies unutilized, underutilized, excess, and surplus Federal property reviewed by HUD for suitability for possible use to assist the homeless.

On September 3, 2003, HUD's Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD) issued CPD Notice 03-09 entitled, ``Development of State and Local Performance Measurements Systems for Community Planning and Development Formula Grant Programs.'' The notice encouraged CPD formula grantees that receive Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program, HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME), Emergency Shelter Grants (ESG), or the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS Program (HOPWA) assistance to develop and use performance measurement systems. In March 2004, the Council of State Community Development Agencies (COSCDA) convened a meeting with representatives from the National Community Development Association (NCDA), the National Association for County Community Economic Development (NACCED), the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO), the National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA), CPD, HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R), and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to discuss the development of a performance measurement system that would be used by CPD formula grantees to gather information and determine the effectiveness of their programs. That meeting resulted in the formation of a working group composed of representatives from those agencies and associations. The working group met at various times from June until November 2004 and developed the appendix entitled, ``Proposed Outcome Performance Measurement System'' which is attached to this notice. This notice solicits comments from the public and particularly from formula program grantees on the proposed performance measurement system.

The proposed information collection requirement described below has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act. The Department is soliciting public comments on the subject proposal. This information will be used to verify that a mortgage has been properly recorded and is eligible for FHA mortgage insurance.

This final rule removes the regulation that specifies the current minimum face amount of any security issued by the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae). The removal of the regulation allows Ginnie Mae to change the current minimum amount of $25,000. This final rule follows publication of a proposed rule on April 13, 2004. The Department gave careful consideration to the public comments and decided to adopt the proposed rule as final without change.

The proposed information collection requirement described below will be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act. The Department is soliciting public comments on the subject proposal.

This Notice identifies unutilized, underutilized, excess, and surplus Federal property reviewed by HUD for suitability for possible use to assist the homeless.

Section 8(c)(1) of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (USHA) requires the Secretary to publish FMRs periodically, but not less than annually, adjusted to be effective on October 1 of each year. Today's notice proposes FMRs for FY2006. The proposed numbers would amend FMR schedules used to determine payment standard amounts for the Housing Choice Voucher program, to determine initial renewal rents for some expiring project-based Section 8 contracts, and to determine initial rents for housing assistance payment (HAP) contracts in the Moderate Rehabilitation Single Room Occupancy program. Other programs may require use of FMRs for other purposes. The proposed FY2006 FMRs in this notice differ from the final FY2005 and previous year FMRs in that they were calculated using the revised Office of Management and Budget (OMB) area definitions that were issued in 2003. For FY2006, HUD is using the county-based statistical areas as defined by OMB, with some modifications. The FMR estimates have been trended to April 2006, the midpoint of FY2006.

On March 21, 2005, HUD published its Fiscal Year (FY) 2005, Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA), Policy Requirements and General Section to the SuperNOFA for HUD's Discretionary Grant Programs. This document makes corrections to the Assisted Living Conversion Program (ALCP), the Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly Program (Section 202 Program), and the Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities Program (Section 811 Program). This notice also extends the application submission date for the Section 202 Program. These changes affect the NOFAS listed, but do not affect the application packages on Grants.gov.