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Financial Services Committee
Unanimously Passes Shays’ HOPE VI Housing Redevelopment
Bill
Washington, D.C. –Today the Financial Services Committee
approved legislation authored by Congressman Christopher Shays
(R-CT) to improve communities through funding of housing redevelopment,
as well as Shays' amendment to tighten personal security data,
especially at federal agencies, in the wake of the loss of
data by the Veterans Administration.
HOPE VI Reauthorization
The Financial Services Committee considered and passed by
voice vote, H.R. 5347, the HOPE VI Reauthorization Act, which
Shays authored.
The bipartisan legislation extends the HOPE VI program until
September 2011 and authorizes annual funding of $600 million.
The program works by providing government grants that leverage
significant state, local and private funds, thereby creating
public-private partnerships to transform dilapidated public
housing into new mixed-income communities. For every government
dollar contributed, the program yields three to four dollars
in private funds.
"The HOPE VI program has been critical to improving
housing in Stamford and by continuing the program, I’m
hopeful other communities in the Fourth District will benefit,”
Shays commented.
In 1997, the Stamford Housing Authority received a $26.4
million HOPE VI grant to revitalize Southfield Village. In
2004, they received another HOPE VI grant worth $20 million
to revitalize Fairfield Court. Click
here for more information on the Fairfield Court grant
Click
here to read Shays’ statement on HOPE VI
Personal Data Security
The Committee voted to amend H.R. 4127, the Data Accountability
and Trust Act, to require any entity that owns or possesses
personal data in electronic form -- including federal agencies
-- to implement security policies to protect that information,
and to notify and provide remedies to victims of ID theft.
Shays cosponsored a provision requiring that all Executive
agencies, and specifically the Department of Veterans Affairs,
be subject to the data security standards mandated by the
bill for any data breach occurring after January 1, 2006.
The Committee unanimously passed the provision.
Yesterday, Shays wrote to the Department of Veterans Affairs
(VA) Inspector General George Opfer calling for answers on
the purpose and extent of the veterans’ data recently
reported lost by the VA. Click
here to read more
Contact: Sarah Moore, 202/225-5541
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