47016 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 176 / Monday, September 14, 2009 / Notices 

public record. In this document the 

U.S. Secret Service is soliciting 

comments concerning the following 

information collection: 

Title: Supplemental Investigative 

Data. 

OMB No.: 1620–0001. 

Form Number: SSF 86A. 

Abstract: Respondents are all Secret 

Service applicants. These applicants, if 

approved for hire, will require a Top 

Secret Clearance, and possible SCI 

Access. Responses to questions on the 

SSF 86A yield information necessary for 

the adjudication for eligibility of the 

clearance, as well as ensure that the 

applicant meets all internal agency 

requirements. 

Agency: Department of Homeland 

Security, United States Secret Service. 

Frequency: On occasion. 

Type of Review: Extension of a 

currently approved collection. 

Affected Public: Individuals. 

Estimated Number of Respondents: 

10,000 respondents. 

Estimated Time Per Respondent: 3 

hours per response. 

Total Burden Hours: 30,000. 

Total Burden Cost: (capital/startup): 

None. 

Total Burden Cost: (operating/ 

maintaining): None. 

Dated: September 9, 2009. 

Sharon Johnson, 

Chief—Policy Analysis and Organizational 

Development Branch, U.S. Secret Service, 

U.S. Department of Homeland Security. 

[FR Doc. E9–22082 Filed 9–11–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4810–42–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND 

URBAN DEVELOPMENT 

[Docket No. FR–5323–N–01] 

Request for Comments on Ending 

‘‘Hold Harmless’’ Policy in Calculating 

Income Limits Under Section 8 of the 

United States Housing Act of 1937 

AGENCY: Office of the Assistant 

Secretary for Policy Development and 

Research, HUD. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: For Fiscal Year (FY) 2009, 

HUD has continued its policy of 

maintaining Section 8 income limits at 

the previously published level in cases 

where HUD’s estimate of area median 

family income (MFI) or housing cost 

adjustment data, or changes in 

calculation methodology, would lead to 

a lower income limit than was 

previously published. The policy was 

adopted to ensure that Multifamily Tax 

Subsidy Projects (MTSPs) would not be 

subject to income-limit and rent 

decreases when the data underlying 

income limits otherwise indicated 

decreases. The Housing and Economic 

Recovery Act of 2008 (Pub. L. 110–289) 

changed the tax code to protect existing 

MTSPs from decreases in income limits 

and rents, should HUD decide to 

discontinue this policy. However, 

maintaining artificially high income 

limits may have an adverse impact on 

other federal programs. HUD is 

requesting public comment on whether 

HUD should discontinue the practice 

with respect to Section 8 income limits 

such that income limits generally would 

be allowed to decrease. 

DATES: Comments Due Date: October 14, 

2009. 

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are 

invited to submit comments regarding 

this notice to the Regulations Division, 

Office of General Counsel, Department 

of Housing and Urban Development, 

451 7th Street, SW., Room 10276, 

Washington, DC 20410–0500. 

Communications must refer to the above 

docket number and title. There are two 

methods for submitting public 

comments. All submissions must refer 

to the above docket number and title. 

1. Submission of Comments by Mail. 

Comments may be submitted by mail to 

the Regulations Division, Office of 

General Counsel, Department of 

Housing and Urban Development, 451 

7th Street, SW., Room 10276, 

Washington, DC 20410–0500. 

2. Electronic Submission of 

Comments. Interested persons may 

submit comments electronically through 

the Federal eRulemaking Portal at 

www.regulations.gov. HUD strongly 

encourages commenters to submit 

comments electronically. Electronic 

submission of comments allows the 

commenter maximum time to prepare 

and submit a comment, ensures their 

timely receipt by HUD, and enables 

HUD to make them immediately 

available to the public. Comments 

submitted electronically through the 

www.regulations.gov website can be 

viewed by other commenters and 

interested members of the public. 

Commenters should follow the 

instructions provided on that website to 

submit comments electronically. 

Note: To receive consideration as public 

comments, comments must be submitted 

through one of the two methods specified 

above. Again, all submissions must refer to 

the docket number and title of the rule. 

No Facsimile Comments. Facsimile 

(FAX) comments are not acceptable. 

Public Inspection of Public 

Comments. All properly submitted 

comments and communications 

submitted to HUD will be available for 

public inspection and copying between 

8 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays at the above 

address. Due to security measures at the 

HUD Headquarters building, an advance 

appointment to review the public 

comments must be scheduled by calling 

the Regulations Division at 202–708– 

3055 (this is not a toll-free number). 

Individuals with speech or hearing 

impairments may access this number 

via TTY by calling the Federal 

Information Relay Service at 800–877– 

8339. Copies of all comments submitted 

are available for inspection and 

downloading at www.regulations.gov. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For 

technical information on the 

methodology used to develop income 

limits and median family income 

estimates, please call the HUD USER 

information line at 800–245–2691 or 

access the information on the HUD Web 

site, http://www.huduser.org/datasets/ 

il.html. That Web site has current and 

historical income limits. Furthermore, 

HUD maintains an interactive on-line 

documentation system for income limits 

and median family income estimates. 

The documentation system will provide 

interested users with their income limits 

prior to the application of the holdharmless policy in areas currently 

designated as ‘‘historical exception’’ 

areas. The FY 2009 documentation 

system may be accessed at http:// 

www.huduser.org/datasets/il/il09/ 

index.html. Questions may be addressed 

to Marie L. Lihn or Lynn A. Rodgers, 

Economic and Market Analysis 

Division, Office of Economic Affairs, 

Office of Policy Development and 

Research, telephone number 202–708– 

0590. Persons with hearing or speech 

impairments may access this number 

through TTY by calling the toll-free 

Federal Information Relay Service at 

800–877–8339. Electronic Data 

Availability: This Federal Register 

notice is available electronically from 

the HUD news page: http:// 

www.hud.gov/offices/adm/hudclips/ 

index.cfm. Federal Register notices also 

are available electronically from the 

U.S. Government Printing Office Web 

site: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/ 

index.html. This Federal Register notice 

also will be posted on the following 

HUD Web site: http://www.huduser.org/ 

datasets/il.html. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background 

The United States Housing Act of 

1937 (the 1937 Act) provides for 

assisted housing for ‘‘low income 

families’’ and ‘‘very low income 

families.’’ Section 3(b)(2) of the 1937 


cprice-sewell on DSK2BSOYB1PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 176 / Monday, September 14, 2009 / Notices 47017 

Act defines ‘‘low-income families’’ and 

‘‘very low-income families’’ as families 

whose incomes are below 80 percent 

and 50 percent, respectively, of the 

median family income for the area, with 

adjustments for family size. These 

income limits are referred to as ‘‘Section 

8 income limits’’ because of the 

historical and statutory links with that 

program, although the same income 

limits are also used as eligibility criteria 

by several other federal programs. The 

1937 Act specifies conditions under 

which Section 8 income limits are to be 

adjusted either on a designated area 

basis or because of family incomes or 

housing-cost-to-income relationships 

that are unusually high or low. Section 

8 income limits are calculated using 

Section 8 Fair Market Rent (FMR) area 

definitions, which in turn are based on 

Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB) metropolitan statistical area 

definitions. 

It has been HUD’s policy to maintain 

Section 8 income limits for certain areas 

at previously published levels when 

reductions would otherwise have 

resulted from changes in median family 

income estimates, housing cost 

adjustment data, median family income 

update methodology, income limit 

methodology, or metropolitan area 

definitions. This policy is commonly 

referred to as the ‘‘hold harmless’’ 

policy and was implemented to avoid 

jeopardizing the financial feasibility of 

existing housing projects in instances 

where program rents were tied to 

Section 8 income limits. Section 8 

income limits have been maintained at 

the same level until such time as 

income limit calculations produced 

increases. 

II. MTSPs 

The primary federal housing programs 

that rely on HUD’s Section 8 income 

limits for the determination of 

maximum rental rates are MTSPs, 

which include multifamily projects 

financed with Internal Revenue Code 

(IRC) section 42 Low-Income Housing 

Tax Credits and IRC section 142 taxexempt private activity bonds. 

Maximum rents for units in MTSPs are 

generally 30 percent of the HUDpublished Section 8 income limit, 

multiplied by a factor that is based on 

the number of bedrooms in a unit. 

Absent a hold-harmless policy, when 

Section 8 income limits fall, the 

maximum rent that a private owner can 

charge low-income tenants in MTSPs 

falls. This can place a financial strain on 

existing MTSPs. Accordingly, HUD has 

maintained Section 8 income limits at 

their existing levels when the normal 

calculation would otherwise result in a 

decrease. Section 3009 of Division C, 

Title I, Subtitle A, Part III of the Housing 

and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, 

Public Law 110–289, statutorily 

implements a project-level holdharmless provision for existing MTSPs 

at 26 U.S.C. 142 (note), obviating the 

need for HUD to continue the policy for 

the benefit of MTSPs. 

III. Other Programs 

Maintaining artificially high income 

limits has had an adverse impact on 

other federal programs. Higher income 

limits increase the number of eligible 

participants, making it harder to target 

limited HUD resources to those most in 

need. Accordingly, HUD is considering 

whether to end its hold-harmless policy 

in calculating Section 8 income limits, 

since the policy is no longer needed to 

protect existing MTSPs. More than 99 

percent of HUD assisted households 

have incomes below the extremely lowincome level (30 percent of area 

median), so modest decreases in the 

Section 8 income limits resulting from 

this change would have minimal impact 

on families residing in assisted housing. 

However, other programs that use 

HUD’s Section 8 income limits to 

determine program eligibility may be 

affected. These programs include, but 

may not be limited to, the Treasury 

Department’s Tax-exempt Mortgage 

Revenue Bonds for Homeownership 

Financing; the Department of 

Agriculture’s Rental and Ownership 

Assistance programs; the Federal 

Deposit Insurance Corporation’s 

Disposition of Multifamily Housing to 

Non-profit and Public Agencies and the 

Disposition of Single Family Housing; 

the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s 

Rental Program Funding Priorities and 

Homeownership Funding Priorities; the 

Veterans Administration’s Eligibility for 

Disability Income Support Payments; 

and the HUD-administered, 

governmentwide Uniform Relocation 

Act to determine the extent of 

replacement housing assistance. 

Applicable income limits are modified 

to meet the requirements of each of 

these programs, but each starts with the 

Section 8 Very Low-Income Limit that 

incorporates high and low housing cost 

adjustments and the state 

nonmetropolitan median as a minimum. 

Additional details about the specific 

limits used by each of these programs 

can be found at: http:// 

www.huduser.org/datasets/il/il09/ 

IncomeLimitsBriefingMaterial

_FY09.pdf. 

In addition, determinations of 

Difficult Development Areas (DDAs) 

under IRC section 42 will be affected by 

this policy proposal. DDAs are areas 

with high ratios of construction, land, 

and utility costs to area median gross 

income and, collectively, may not 

include more than 20 percent of the 

population of all areas evaluated under 

the statutory formula. The holdharmless policy may prevent increases 

in this ratio for areas that would 

otherwise experience decreasing income 

limits, making them less likely to be 

designated as a DDA. 

HUD specifically invites public 

comment on whether these programs 

would better target persons and 

communities with the most need if HUD 

discontinued the hold-harmless policy 

and allowed Section 8 income limits to 

fall in accordance with the statutory and 

regulatory formula. 

HUD also specifically invites 

comments on whether the holdharmless policy should be maintained 

with respect to Section 8 income limits 

used for calculating HOME program 

rents, while discontinuing the holdharmless policy with respect to 

eligibility requirements under the 

HOME program and other programs. 

The language defining income limits in 

the HOME program is parallel to that in 

Section 3(b)(2) of the 1937 Act, but does 

not refer specifically to that or any other 

section in setting income limits. 

Therefore, HUD may, for the HOME 

program’s income limits and rents, use 

a process like that used to create the 

Section 3(b)(2) income limits, but with 

variations like a hold-harmless policy, if 

needed. Maintaining the hold-harmless 

policy for HOME program rents would 

prevent such rents from falling in areas 

where incomes may be falling, while 

discontinuing the hold-harmless policy 

with respect to eligibility requirements 

would help target HOME funds for use 

by families with lower incomes and 

greater need. 

Any change in HUD’s policy in this 

regard would become effective only 

upon publication of a future notice by 

HUD. 

Dated: September 4, 2009. 

Raphael W. Bostic, 

Assistant Secretary for Policy Development 

and Research. 

[FR Doc. E9–22077 Filed 9–11–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4210–67–P 


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