Stephanie Tubbs Jones Assets for Independence Reauthorization Act of 2019

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 4473 To reauthorize the Assets for Independence Act, to provide for the approval of applications to operate new demonstration programs and to renew existing programs, to enhance program flexibility, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SEPTEMBER 24, 2019 Mr. LEWIS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means A BILL To reauthorize the Assets for Independence Act, to provide for the approval of applications to operate new dem- onstration programs and to renew existing programs, to enhance program flexibility, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; REFERENCE; TABLE OF CON- 3 TENTS. 4 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 5 ‘‘Stephanie Tubbs Jones Assets for Independence Reau- 6 thorization Act of 2019’’. 7 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:01 Sep 28, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4473.IH H4473 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 4473 IH (b) REFERENCE.—Except as otherwise expressly pro- 1 vided, wherever in this Act an amendment is expressed 2 in terms of an amendment to a section or other provision, 3 the reference shall be considered to be made to that sec- 4 tion or other provision of the Assets for Independence Act 5 (42 U.S.C. 604 note). 6 (c) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents of 7 this Act is as follows: 8 Sec. 1. Short title; reference; table of contents. Sec. 2. Findings. Sec. 3. Sense of Congress. Sec. 4. Definitions. Sec. 5. Applications. Sec. 6. Demonstration authority; annual grants. Sec. 7. Reserve Fund. Sec. 8. Eligibility for participation. Sec. 9. Deposits by qualified entities. Sec. 10. Regulations. Sec. 11. Annual progress reports. Sec. 12. Sanctions. Sec. 13. Evaluations. Sec. 14. Costs of training qualified entities. Sec. 15. Waiver authority. Sec. 16. Authorization of appropriations. Sec. 17. Conforming amendments. Sec. 18. General effective date. SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 9 Section 402 is amended— 10 (1) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘Fully 1⁄2’’ 11 and inserting ‘‘Almost 1⁄4’’; and 12 (2) in paragraph (4), by striking the first sen- 13 tence and inserting the following: ‘‘Traditional pub- 14 lic assistance programs concentrate on income and 15 consumption and have lacked an asset-building com- 16 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:01 Sep 28, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4473.IH H4473 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 4473 IH ponent to promote and support the transition to in- 1 creased economic self-sufficiency.’’. 2 SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 3 It is the sense of Congress that a qualified entity con- 4 ducting a demonstration project under the Assets for 5 Independence Act (42 U.S.C. 604 note) should, to the 6 maximum extent practicable, increase— 7 (1) the rate at which the entity matches con- 8 tributions by individuals participating in the project 9 under section 410(a)(1) of such Act; or 10 (2) the number of individuals participating in 11 the project. 12 SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS. 13 Section 404 is amended— 14 (1) by amending paragraph (4) to read as fol- 15 lows: 16 ‘‘(4) HOUSEHOLD.—The term ‘household’ 17 means an individual or group of individuals who live 18 in a single residence. Multiple households may share 19 a single residence.’’; 20 (2) in paragraph (5)(A)— 21 (A) by striking clause (iii); 22 (B) by redesignating clauses (iv) through 23 (vi) as clauses (iii) through (v), respectively; 24 and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:01 Sep 28, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4473.IH H4473 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 4473 IH (C) in clause (iv), as redesignated by sub- 1 paragraph (B), by striking ‘‘clause (vi)’’ and in- 2 serting ‘‘clause (v)’’; 3 (3) in paragraph (7)(A)— 4 (A) by amending clause (ii) to read as fol- 5 lows: 6 ‘‘(ii) a State or local government 7 agency (or a public housing agency, as de- 8 fined in section 3(b)(6) of the United 9 States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 10 1437a(b)(6))) or a tribal government (or a 11 tribally designated housing entity, as de- 12 fined in section 4(22) of the Native Amer- 13 ican Housing Assistance and Self-Deter- 14 mination Act of 1996 (25 U.S.C. 15 4103(22)));’’; and 16 (B) by striking clause (iii) and inserting 17 the following: 18 ‘‘(iii) a credit union designated as a 19 low-income credit union by the National 20 Credit Union Administration (NCUA); or 21 ‘‘(iv) an organization designated as a 22 community development financial institu- 23 tion by the Secretary of the Treasury (or 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:01 Sep 28, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4473.IH H4473 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 4473 IH the Community Development Financial In- 1 stitutions Fund).’’; and 2 (4) in paragraph (8)— 3 (A) in subparagraph (A)— 4 (i) in the first sentence— 5 (I) by inserting ‘‘of an eligible in- 6 dividual or the dependent of an eligi- 7 ble individual (as such term is used in 8 subparagraph (E)(ii))’’ after ‘‘ex- 9 penses’’; and 10 (II) by inserting ‘‘, or to a vendor 11 pursuant to an education purchase 12 plan approved by a qualified entity’’ 13 before the period; 14 (ii) in clause (i)— 15 (I) in subclause (II), by inserting 16 ‘‘or for courses described in subclause 17 (III)’’ after ‘‘eligible educational insti- 18 tution’’; and 19 (II) by adding at the end the fol- 20 lowing new subclauses: 21 ‘‘(III) PREPARATORY 22 COURSES.—Preparatory courses for 23 an examination required for admission 24 to an eligible educational institution, 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:01 Sep 28, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4473.IH H4473 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 4473 IH for successful performance at an eligi- 1 ble educational institution, or for a 2 professional licensing or certification 3 examination. 4 ‘‘(IV) ROOM AND BOARD AND 5 TRANSPORTATION.—Room and board 6 and transportation, including com- 7 muting expenses, necessary to enable 8 attendance at courses of instruction at 9 an eligible educational institution or 10 attendance at courses described in 11 subclause (III).’’; 12 (iii) by amending clause (ii) to read as 13 follows: 14 ‘‘(ii) ELIGIBLE EDUCATIONAL INSTI- 15 TUTION.—The term ‘eligible educational 16 institution’ means— 17 ‘‘(I) an institution described in 18 section 101 or 102 of the Higher 19 Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 20 1001, 1002); or 21 ‘‘(II) an area career and tech- 22 nical education school, as defined in 23 section 3(3) of the Carl D. Perkins 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:01 Sep 28, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4473.IH H4473 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 4473 IH Career and Technical Education Act 1 of 2006 (20 U.S.C. 2302(3)).’’; and 2 (iv) by adding at the end the following 3 new clause: 4 ‘‘(iii) EDUCATION PURCHASE PLAN.— 5 The term ‘education purchase plan’ means 6 a plan— 7 ‘‘(I) for the purchase of items or 8 services described in subclauses (II) 9 through (IV) of clause (i) from enti- 10 ties other than eligible educational in- 11 stitutions; 12 ‘‘(II) that includes a description 13 of the items or services to be pur- 14 chased; and 15 ‘‘(III) that includes such infor- 16 mation as a qualified entity may re- 17 quest from the eligible individual in- 18 volved regarding the necessity of the 19 items or services to a course of study 20 at an eligible educational institution 21 or a course described in clause 22 (i)(III).’’; 23 (B) in subparagraph (B)— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:01 Sep 28, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4473.IH H4473 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 4473 IH (i) by amending clause (i) to read as 1 follows: 2 ‘‘(i) PRINCIPAL RESIDENCE.—The 3 term ‘principal residence’ means a main 4 residence the qualified acquisition costs of 5 which do not exceed 120 percent of the 6 median house price in the area, as deter- 7 mined by the Secretary of Housing and 8 Urban Development for purposes of section 9 203(b) of the National Housing Act (12 10 U.S.C. 1709(b)) for a residence occupied 11 by a number of families that corresponds 12 to the number of households occupying the 13 residence involved.’’; and 14 (ii) in clause (iii)— 15 (I) by amending subclause (I) to 16 read as follows: 17 ‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—Subject to 18 subclause (II), the term ‘qualified 19 first-time homebuyer’ means an indi- 20 vidual participating in the project in- 21 volved who— 22 ‘‘(aa) has no sole present 23 ownership interest in a principal 24 residence during the 3-year pe- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:01 Sep 28, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4473.IH H4473 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 9 •HR 4473 IH riod ending on the date of acqui- 1 sition of the principal residence 2 to which this subparagraph ap- 3 plies (except for an interest in 4 such principal residence); and 5 ‘‘(bb) has no co-ownership 6 interest in a principal residence 7 on the date of acquisition of the 8 principal residence to which this 9 subparagraph applies (except for 10 an interest in such principal resi- 11 dence).’’; 12 (II) by redesignating subclause 13 (II) as subclause (III); and 14 (III) by inserting after subclause 15 (I) the following new subclause: 16 ‘‘(II) EXCEPTION FOR VICTIMS 17 OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE.—An indi- 18 vidual participating in the project in- 19 volved who is a recent or current vic- 20 tim of domestic violence (as defined in 21 section 40002(a)(8) of the Violence 22 Against Women Act of 1994 (42 23 U.S.C. 13925(a)(8))) shall not be con- 24 sidered to fail to be a qualified first- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:01 Sep 28, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4473.IH H4473 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 10 •HR 4473 IH time homebuyer by reason of having a 1 co-ownership interest in a principal 2 residence with a person who com- 3 mitted domestic violence against the 4 victim.’’; 5 (C) by redesignating subparagraphs (C) 6 and (D) as subparagraphs (D) and (E), respec- 7 tively; 8 (D) by inserting after subparagraph (B) 9 the following new subparagraph: 10 ‘‘(C) HOME REPLACEMENT, REPAIR, OR 11 IMPROVEMENT.—Qualified replacement costs or 12 qualified repair or improvement costs with re- 13 spect to a principal residence, if paid from an 14 individual development account directly to the 15 persons to whom the amounts are due. In this 16 subparagraph: 17 ‘‘(i) PRINCIPAL RESIDENCE.—The 18 term ‘principal residence’ means— 19 ‘‘(I) with respect to payment of 20 qualified replacement costs, a main 21 residence the qualified replacement 22 costs of which do not exceed 120 per- 23 cent of the median house price in the 24 area, as determined by the Secretary 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:01 Sep 28, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4473.IH H4473 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 11 •HR 4473 IH of Housing and Urban Development 1 for purposes of section 203(b) of the 2 National Housing Act (12 U.S.C. 3 1709(b)) for a residence occupied by a 4 number of families that corresponds 5 to the number of households occu- 6 pying the residence involved; or 7 ‘‘(II) with respect to qualified re- 8 pair or improvement costs, a main 9 residence the value of which does not 10 exceed, on the day before the com- 11 mencement of the repairs or improve- 12 ments, 120 percent of such median 13 house price. 14 ‘‘(ii) QUALIFIED REPLACEMENT 15 COSTS.—The term ‘qualified replacement 16 costs’ means the costs (including any usual 17 or reasonable settlement, financing, or 18 other closing costs) of replacing— 19 ‘‘(I) a manufactured home that 20 was manufactured, assembled, or im- 21 ported for resale before the initial ef- 22 fectiveness of any Federal manufac- 23 tured home construction and safety 24 standards established pursuant to sec- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:01 Sep 28, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4473.IH H4473 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 12 •HR 4473 IH tion 604 of the National Manufac- 1 tured Housing Construction and Safe- 2 ty Standards Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 3 5403); or 4 ‘‘(II) a residence that fails to 5 meet local building codes or is not le- 6 gally habitable. 7 ‘‘(iii) QUALIFIED REPAIR OR IM- 8 PROVEMENT COSTS.—The term ‘qualified 9 repair or improvement costs’ means the 10 costs of making repairs or improvements 11 (including any usual or reasonable financ- 12 ing costs) that will enhance the habitability 13 or long-term value of a residence.’’; and 14 (E) by adding at the end the following new 15 subparagraph: 16 ‘‘(F) QUALIFIED TUITION PROGRAMS.— 17 Contributions paid from an individual develop- 18 ment account of an eligible individual directly 19 to a qualified tuition program (as defined in 20 subsection (b) of section 529 of the Internal 21 Revenue Code of 1986), for the purpose of cov- 22 ering qualified higher education expenses (as 23 defined in subsection (e)(3) of such section) of 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:01 Sep 28, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00012 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4473.IH H4473 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 13 •HR 4473 IH a dependent of such individual (as such term is 1 used in clause (ii) of subparagraph (E)).’’. 2 SEC. 5. APPLICATIONS. 3 Section 405 is amended— 4 (1) in subsection (c)(4), by adding at the end 5 the following: ‘‘Such funds include funds received 6 under the Community Services Block Grant Act (42 7 U.S.C. 9901 et seq.), the Indian Self-Determination 8 and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 450b et 9 seq.), the Native American Housing Assistance and 10 Self-Determination Act of 1996 (25 U.S.C. 4101 et 11 seq.), or title I of the Housing and Community De- 12 velopment Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5301 et seq.) (in- 13 cluding Community Development Block Grant Act 14 funds and Indian Community Development Block 15 Grant Act funds), that are formally committed to 16 the project.’’; and 17 (2) by adding at the end the following new sub- 18 section: 19 ‘‘(h) APPLICATIONS FOR NEW PROJECTS AND RE- 20 NEWALS OF EXISTING PROJECTS.—For project years be- 21 ginning on or after the date of the enactment of the Steph- 22 anie Tubbs Jones Assets for Independence Reauthoriza- 23 tion Act of 2019, the preceding provisions of this section 24 shall only apply as follows: 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:01 Sep 28, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00013 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4473.IH H4473 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 14 •HR 4473 IH ‘‘(1) ANNOUNCEMENT OF PROCEDURES.—Not 1 later than 180 days after the date of the enactment [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]