Funding for Emergency Vouchers Not Included in Conference Report
Hurricane Recovery
Memo to Members: Vol 10, No. 43, November 4, 2005
The conference report for the Commerce, Justice and Science (CJS) FY06 appropriations bill, H.R. 2862, released on November 4, does not include requested funding for emergency vouchers to meet the needs of Katrina evacuees.
On September 8, Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-MD) successfully attached an amendment to the CJS appropriations bill to appropriate $3.5 billion for emergency assistance housing vouchers and for assistance to current Section 8 housing voucher recipients displaced by Hurricane Katrina. This amount would have funded vouchers for approximately 360,000 displaced households (see Memo, 9/9). The House CJS appropriations bill did not include this funding, and the difference had to be worked out in conference committee. Because the money would have gone to programs administered by HUD, a department not under the jurisdiction of the conferees, House appropriators declined to include the money in the final bill.
