Ill STAT. 1386 PUBLIC LAW 105-65 —OCT. 27, 1997 3 assistance under section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937; (3) FHA-insured multifamily rental properties are a major Federal investment, providing affordable rental housing to an estimated 2,000,000 low- and very low-income families; (4) approximately 1,600,000 of these families live in dwelling imits that are assisted with project-based rental assistance under section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937; (5) a substantial number of housing units receiving projectbased assistance have rents that are higher than the rents of comparable, unassisted rental units in the same housing rental market; (6) many of the contracts for project-based assistance will expire during the several years following the date of enactment of this Act; (7) it is estimated that— (A) if no changes in the terms and conditions of the contracts for project-based assistance are made before fiscal year 2000, the cost of renewing all expiring rental assistance contracts under section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937 for both project-based and tenant-based rental assistsince will increase from approximately $3,600,000,000 in fiscal year 1997 to over $14,300,000,000 by fiscal year 2000 and some $22,400,000,000 in fiscal year 2006; (B) of those renewal amounts, the cost of renewing project-based assistance will increase from $1,200,000,000 in fiscal year 1997 to almost $7,400,000,000 by fiscal year 2006; and (C) without changes in the manner in which projectbased rental assistance is provided, renewals of expiring contracts for project-based rental assistance will require an increasingly larger portion of the discretionary budget authority of the Department of Housing and Urban Development in each subsequent fiscal year for the foreseeable future; (8) absent new budget authority for the renewal of expiring rental contracts for project-based assistance, many of the FHA- insured multifamily housing projects that are assisted with project-based assistance are likely to default on their FHA- insured mortgage pa3anents, resulting in substantial claims to the FHA General Insurance Fund and Special Risk Insurance Fund; (9) more than 15 percent of federally assisted multifamily housing projects are physically or financially distressed, including a number which suffer from mismanagement; (10) due to Federal budget constraints, the downsizing of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and diminished administrative capacity, the Department lacks the ability to ensure the continued economic and physical wellbeing of the stock of federally insured and assisted multifamily housing projects; (11) the economic, physical, and management problems facing the stock of federally insured and assisted multifamily housing projects will be best served by reforms that— (A) reduce the cost of Federal rental assistance, including project-based assistance, to these projects by reducing the debt service and operating costs of these projects while
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