FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 16, 1999
CONTACT: Lisette McSoud Mondello
SENATOR HUTCHISON APPLAUDS
FANNIE MAE'S $1.5 BILLION BORDER INVESTMENT PLAN
SAN ANTONIO, TX -- Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison today hailed a $1.5 billion border region investment plan launched by the nation's largest financing source for home mortgages that will give border residents more opportunity for home ownership.
"I couldn't be more pleased with Fannie Mae's plan to help more than 18,000 border residents achieve the American dream of home ownership," said Senator Hutchison, a longtime champion of improving border living conditions.
The plan will provide $1.5 billion in affordable home ownership and rental financing over the next five years for 18,000 low, moderate and middle income families living in the 19 counties along the Texas-Mexico border.
"I've been working since my first day in the Senate to improve border residents' lives," the Senator said. "This is one more way to do that."
Since 1994, Senator Hutchison has successfully obtained $350 million to improve water and sewer infrastructure in colonias to help combat persistent illnesses there. Senator Hutchison also successfully inserted language into the fiscal year 2000 Labor-HHS Appropriation bill that will force the President to finally appoint members of the US-Mexico Border Health Commission, first authorized in 1994.
"There is no place in 21st century Texas for some of the conditions we see along the border," the Senator said.
Fannie Mae's investment plan will provide financing to qualified border residents in the following counties: Brewster, Cameron, Dimmit, El Paso, Hidalgo, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis, Kinney, La Salle, Maverick, Presidio, Starr, Terrell, Uvalde, Val Verde, Webb, Willacy, Zapata and Zavala.
Senator Hutchison also welcomed Fannie Mae's early completion of its first border investment plan, $500 million in housing financing in El Paso and $500 million in Laredo. This $1billion plan was completed ahead of schedule in just four years.
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