I 
108TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1276
To provide downpayment assistance under the HOME Investment 
Partnerships Act, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 13, 2003
Ms. HARRIS (for herself, Mr. ROGERS of Michigan, Mr. OXLEY, Mr. NEY, Mr. 
DAVIS of Alabama, Mr. MURPHY, Mr. BACHUS, Mr. BAKER, Mr. BAR-
RETT of South Carolina, Mr. BEREUTER, Mrs. BIGGERT, Mr. BOEHLERT, 
Mr. CASTLE, Mr. EMANUEL, Mr. GILLMOR, Mr. GREEN of Wisconsin, 
Ms. HART, Mr. JONES
of North Carolina, Mrs. KELLY, Mr. 
LATOURETTE, Mr. LEACH, Mr. LEWIS of Kentucky, Mr. MANZULLO, Mr. 
GARY G. MILLER of California, Mrs. CAPITO, Mr. RENZI, Mr. RYUN of 
Kansas, Mr. SCOTT of Georgia, Mr. SHADEGG, Mr. SHAYS, Mr. TIBERI, 
and Mr. WILSON of South Carolina) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on Financial Services 
A BILL 
To provide downpayment assistance under the HOME 
Investment Partnerships Act, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘American Dream 
Downpayment Act’’.
SEC. 2. DOWNPAYMENT ASSISTANCE INITIATIVE UNDER 
HOME PROGRAM. 
(a) DOWNPAYMENT ASSISTANCE INITIATIVE.—Sub-
title E of title II of the Cranston-Gonzalez National Af-
fordable Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 12821) is amended to 
read as follows: 
‘‘Subtitle E—Other Assistance 
‘‘SEC. 271. DOWNPAYMENT ASSISTANCE INITIATIVE. 
‘‘(a) GRANT AUTHORITY.—The Secretary may make 
grants to participating jurisdictions to assist low-income 
families to achieve homeownership, in accordance with this 
section. 
‘‘(b) ELIGIBLE ACTIVITIES.—Amounts made avail-
able under this section may be used only for downpayment 
assistance toward the purchase of single family housing 
by low-income families who are first-time homebuyers. For 
purposes of this title, the term ‘downpayment assistance’ 
means assistance to help a family acquire a principal resi-
dence. 
‘‘(c) HOUSING STRATEGY.—To be eligible to receive 
a grant under this section for a fiscal year, a participating 
jurisdiction shall include in its comprehensive housing af-
fordability strategy under section 105 for such year a de-
scription of the use of the grant amounts. 
‘‘(d) FORMULA ALLOCATION.—For each fiscal year, 
the Secretary shall allocate any amounts made available
for assistance under this section for the fiscal year in ac-
cordance with a formula, which shall be established by the 
Secretary, that considers a participating jurisdiction’s 
need for and prior commitment to assistance to home-
buyers. The formula may include minimum and maximum 
allocation amounts. 
‘‘(e) REALLOCATION.—If any amounts allocated to a 
participating jurisdiction under this section become avail-
able for reallocation, the amounts shall be reallocated to 
other participating jurisdictions in accordance with the 
formula established pursuant to subsection (c), except that 
if a local participating jurisdiction failed to receive 
amounts allocated under this section and is located in a 
State that is a participating jurisdiction, the funds shall 
be reallocated to the State. 
‘‘(f) APPLICABILITY OF OTHER PROVISIONS.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as otherwise pro-
vided in this section, grants under this section shall 
not be subject to the provisions of this title. 
‘‘(2) APPLICABLE PROVISIONS.—In addition to 
the requirements of this section, grants under this 
section shall be subject to the provisions of title I, 
sections 215(b), 218, 219, 221, 223, 224, and 
226(a) of subtitle A of this title, and subtitle F of 
this title.
‘‘(3) REFERENCES.—In applying the require-
ments of subtitle A referred to in paragraph (2)—
‘‘(A) any references to funds under subtitle 
A shall be considered to refer to amounts made 
available for assistance under this section; and 
‘‘(B) any references to funds allocated or 
reallocated under section 217 or 217(d) shall be 
considered to refer to amounts allocated or re-
allocated under subsection (d) or (e) of this sec-
tion, respectively. 
‘‘(g) ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS.—Notwithstanding sec-
tion 212(c), a participating jurisdiction may use funds 
under subtitle A for administrative and planning costs of 
the jurisdiction in carrying out this section, and the limita-
tion in section 212(c) shall be based on the total amount 
of funds available under subtitle A and this section. 
‘‘(h) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 
is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 
$200,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2004 and 2005.’’. 
(b) RELOCATION ASSISTANCE AND DOWNPAYMENT 
ASSISTANCE.—Subtitle F of title II of the Cranston-Gon-
zalez National Affordable Housing Act is amended by in-
serting after section 290 (42 U.S.C. 12840) the following 
new section:
‘‘SEC. 291. RELOCATION ASSISTANCE AND DOWNPAYMENT 
ASSISTANCE. 
‘‘The Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Prop-
erty Acquisition Policies Act of 1970 shall not apply to 
downpayment assistance under this title.’’.
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