Discharge Sought for Housing Trust Fund Bill

Three congressmen have filed a discharge petition in the House to force a vote on a bill that would create a $5 billion national housing trust fund.The bill (H.R. 1102), sponsored by Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is designed to stimulate construction of rental housing for low-income families by providing seed money for state and local housing trust funds. Reps. Sanders, Michael Capuano, D-Mass., and Barbara Lee, D-Calif., filed the discharge petition, and they say they are hoping that a large network of low-income housing advocates will lobby their local representatives during the congressional summer recess to sign the petition. "The Lee-Capuano-Sanders discharge petition will set in motion the long-awaited process of starting a national affordable housing construction program," Rep. Lee said. The Bush administration opposes the bill and Republican leaders have bottled it up in the House Finance Services Committee for the past two years even though H.R. 1102 has over 200 co-sponsors, mostly Democrats. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, introduced the first NHTF bill in the Senate several years ago. NHTF supporters need 218 House members to sign the discharge petition to get an up or down vote in September.