Summary: In fiscal year 1998, Congress earmarked $25 billion for programs at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)--a 30-percent increase over the previous year's appropriation. HUD will use more than one-third of this funding to help poor people obtain decent housing under section 8 of the Housing Act of 1937. Section 8 established two primary types of assistance for families to rent private housing: tenant-based assistance provided through contracts with housing agencies and project-based assistance provided through contracts with landlords. In 1997, HUD reported that enough money had accumulated unneeded and unspent over the 24-year life of the tenant-based program to fully fund the program in fiscal year 1996. Before 1997, however, HUD's computer systems could not identify the accumulation of such excess budget authority. This report (1) evaluates the accuracy of HUD's estimate of its unspent money in the section 8 tenant-based program and the reasonableness of this amount and (2) assesses HUD's budget formulation process as it was carried out for the Department's fiscal year 1998 budget submission for the tenant-based section 8 program.
