Congress was busy yesterday. The following bills were passed:
1. Tax Credit Closing Date deadline - The Senate last night passed by unanimous consent HR 5623 that extends the closing date deadline for loans eligible for the homebuyer tax credit to September 30, 2010. The bill will be sent to President Obama for his signature, which should happen within a day or two.
2. Flood Insurance Program reauthorized - The Senate, also by unanimous consent, passed HR 5569, which extends the Flood Insurance Program to September 30, 2010. Because of the wording of the law, there is no gap in coverage during the time that the program has been lapsed. The law simply authorizes the program until a date certain and in this case the previous date of May 31, 2010 was replaced with the date September 30, 2010. So applications submitted during the lapse period will be processed, approved and coverage will begin on the date of the application.
3. Conference Report on Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Bill - The House, by a vote of 237-192, passed the Conference Report on HR 4173, the Dodd-Frank bill. Since the Senate adjourned last night until July 12th, the bill will not be enacted into law until sometime after the Senate returns.
What the Congress did not do: The House has still not taken action on HR 4899, which contains the revisions to the USDA Single Family Home Loan Guaranty program. The House is still in session today – July 1 – and the bill is on the House calendar for potential action. If the House passes HR 4899 with the amendments added by the Senate, then the bill will promptly be sent to the President for his signature and the USDA program will be back in business shortly.
However if the House rejects the Senate amendments then no further action will take place until the week of July 12th. Please remember that HR 4899 contains a number of different items that have nothing to do with the USDA program. If there is a disagreement between the House and Senate it will be over those items. The USDA revisions the Senate inserted, increasing the upfront fee to 3.5% and authorizing, but not requiring an annual fee of 0.5%, are expected to be the final changes.
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This is great news, as well as a good summary of the changes that just occured. Thanks for keeping us “in-the-know”.
[...] Late Wednesday night (June 30th), the Senate took the lead of the House of Representatives and passed the Homebuyer Assistance and Improvement Act which extends the CLOSING date for those eligible to receive the federal tax credit under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This is part of the bill that was presented. You can see other details of this bill here. [...]