May '10 Nevada Government—U.S. Congresswoman Dina Titus Column

Titus, Heller, Costa Amendment Helps Military Families Hit by the Housing Crisis

May 27, 2010 – Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Dina Titus of Nevada’s Third District spoke on the House floor today in support an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011 that she sponsored with Congressmen Dean Heller of Nevada and Jim Costa of California. The amendment, modeled after legislation Titus introduced last year, makes more military families eligible for assistance when the service member is reassigned and the family must sell their home at a loss. Below are her remarks as delivered. Click here, to watch Titus’ speech.

“The purpose of this amendment is to provide the Secretary of Defense the flexibility to change the effective date of the Homeowners Assistance Program for members of the armed forces permanently reassigned during the mortgage crisis. The program, as approved by Congress last year, allows active duty service members to be partially reimbursed for losses occurring as a result of having to sell their home upon being reassigned. Under current law, a service member must have purchased his or her home before July 1, 2006, in order to qualify for assistance.

“My Congressional District is home to a number of service members from Nellis Air Force base and the Remotely Piloted Aircraft program at Creech Air Force Base. Many of these armed services members were assigned to Southern Nevada at the height of the housing boom, when prices were fueled by out of control and reckless speculators.

“They and others around the country purchased homes at what was then a fair market price. Now, due to no fault of their own, however, many of these homes have lost a significant amount of their value. A problem arises because service members are now receiving Permanent Change of Station orders and are being reassigned to a new area.

“A number of service members from around the world have contacted us, saying that this date, July 1, 2006, was set too early to achieve the intended goals of the program. Accordingly, our amendment provides the necessary flexibility to the Secretary of Defense to change this date in specific geographic areas where housing price declines trended behind the national average. It is important to keep in mind that most of these service members had no choice in the timing of their transfer and relocation and are therefore unintended victims of the arbitrary deadline.

“This amendment is modeled after legislation I introduced in December, which had 27 bipartisan cosponsors. It has also been endorsed by a number of military family organizations who recognize its importance.

“I thank Chairman Skelton for his support and working with me, and I urge my colleagues to vote for the amendment.”

Titus: Weatherization Funding Creates Jobs and Saves Nevadans Money on Energy Bills

May 27, 2010 – Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Dina Titus of Nevada’s Third District highlighted funding today from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that has successfully been used to create jobs for the weatherization of more than 2,300 homes in Nevada.

“As a result of funds from the Recovery Act, thousands of Nevadans are paying less for their energy bills at a time when saving every dollar counts,” Congresswoman Titus said. “Investing in weatherizing homes across the state has also helped our hard-hit construction sector, creating jobs in an industry that greatly needs a boost.”

Nevada’s efforts to weatherize homes through the Weatherization Assistance Program is saving families an average of $437 on their energy bills annually while helping put Nevadans back to work. Approximately 80 workers have been employed by state and local weatherization providers. Under the weatherization program, Nevada accessed half of the $37.3 million it was allocated. Now that more than 30 percent of the homes the state estimated it would weatherize have been completed, the state will have access to the remaining funds. Weatherizing homes includes conducting an energy audit, installing additional insulation and weatherstripping, sealing windows and doors, caulking cracks, and replacing inefficient heating and cooling equipment.