URBAN DEVELOPMENT ACTION GRANT SELECTION CRITERIA.

SEC. 515. URBAN DEVELOPMENT ACTION GRANT SELECTION CRITERIA. (a) Project Quality Criteria.— Section 119(d)(1) of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 is amended— (1) by inserting a dash before “(A)”; (2) by indenting subparagraphs (A) and (B) in the same manner as subparagraphs (C) and (D), as inserted by this subsection; (3) in subparagraph (A), by striking out “as the primary criterion,”; (4) by striking out “and” at the end of subparagraph (B); and (5) by striking out subparagraph (O and inserting in lieu thereof the following new subparagraphs: “(C) the following other criteria: 101 STAT. 1931 “(i) the extent to which the grant will stimulate economic recovery by leveraging private investment; “(ii) the number of permanent jobs to be created and their relation to the amount of grant funds requested; “(iii) the proportion of permanent jobs accessible to lower income persons and minorities, including persons who are unemployed; “(iv) the extent to which the project will retain jobs that will be lost without the provision of a grant under this section; “(v) the extent to which the project will relieve the most pressing employment or residential needs of the applicant by— “(I) reemploying workers in a skill that has recently suffered a sharp increase in unemployment locally; “(II) retraining recently unemployed residents in new skills; “(III) providing training to increase the local pool of skilled labor; or “(IV) producing decent housing for low- and moderate-income persons in cases where such housing is in severe shortage in the area of the applicant, except that an application shall be considered to produce housing for low- and moderate-income persons under this clause only if such application proposes that (a) not less than 51 percent of all funds available for the project shall be used for dwelling units and related facilities; and (b) not less than 30 percent of all funds used for dwelling units and related facilities shall be used for dwelling units to be occupied by persons of low and moderate income, or not less than 20 percent of all dwelling units made available to occupancy using such funds shall be occupied by persons of low and moderate income, whichever results in the occupancy of more dwelling units by persons of low and moderate income; “(vi) the impact of the proposed activities on the fiscal base of the city or urban county and its relation to the amount of grant funds requested; “(vii) the extent to which State or local Government funding or special economic incentives have been committed; and “(viii) the extent to which the project will have a substantial impact on physical and economic development of the city or urban county, the proposed activities are likely to be accomplished in a timely fashion with the grant amount available, and the city or urban county has demonstrated performance in housing and community development programs; and “(D) additional consideration for projects with the following characteristics: “(i) projects to be located within a city or urban county which did not receive a preliminary grant approval under this section during the 12-month period preceding the date on which applications are required to be submitted for the grant competition involved; and “(ii) twice the amount of the additional consideration provided under clause (i) for projects to be located in cities 101 STAT. 1932or urban counties which did not receive a preliminary grant approval during the 24-month period preceding the date on which applications under this section are required to be submitted for the grant competition involved. If a city or urban county has submitted and has pending more than one application, the additional consideration provided by subparagraph (D) of the preceding sentence shall be available only to the project in such city or urban county which received the highest number of points under subparagraph (C) of such sentence.”. (b) Selection Limitations and Criteria Weight.— Section 119(d) of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new paragraphs: “(3) The Secretary shall award points to each application as follows: “(A) not more than 35 points on the basis of the criteria referred to in paragraph (1)( A); “(B) not more than 35 points on the basis of the criteria referred to in paragraph (1)(B); “(C) not more than 33 points on the basis of the criteria referred to in paragraph (1)(C); and “(D) (i) 1 additional point on the basis of the criterion referred to in paragraph (1)(D)(i); or “(ii) 2 additional points on the basis of the criterion referred to in paragraph (1)(D)(ii). “(4) The Secretary shall distribute grant funds under this section so that to the extent practicable during each funding cycle— “(A) 65 percent of the funds is first made available utilizing all of the criteria set forth in paragraph (1); and “(B) 35 percent of the funds is then made available solely on the basis of the factors referred to in subparagraphs (C) and (D) of paragraph (1). “(5) (A) Within 30 days of the start of each fiscal year, the Secretary shall announce the number of competitions for grants to be held in that fiscal year. The number of competitions shall be not less than two nor more than three.”. “(B) Each competition for grants described in any clause of subparagraph (A) shall be for an amount equal to the sum of— “(i) approximately the amount of the funds available for such grants for the fiscal year divided by the number of competitions for those funds; “(ii) any funds available for such grants in any previous competition that are not awarded; and “(iii) any funds available for such grants in any previous competition that are recaptured. “(6) In an application under this subsection, an urban county may use data relating to the criteria under paragraph (1) that reflect distress conditions of census tracts within a radius of 15 miles of the proposed project and within that urban county and in metropolitan cities within that urban county, except that if any data reflecting conditions in a metropolitan city with a population of 100,000 or more are included, then data reflecting conditions in any metropolitan city with a population of 75,000 or more may be used only with the consent of that metropolitan city.”. (c) Use of Repaid Grant Funds.— Section 119(f) of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 is amended by adding at 101 STAT. 1933the end thereof the following: “In any case in which the project proposes the repayment to the applicant of the grant funds, such funds shall be made available by the applicant for economic development activities that are eligible activities under this section or section 104. The applicant shall annually provide the Secretary with a statement of the projected receipt and use of repaid grant funds during the next year together with a report acceptable to the Secretary on the use of such funds during the most recent preceding full fiscal year of the applicant.”. (d) Nondiscrimination.— Section 119(r) of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 is amended to read as follows: “(r) In utilizing the discretion of the Secretary when providing assistance and applying selection criteria under this section, the Secretary may not discriminate against applications on the basis of (1) the type of activity involved, whether such activity is primarily housing, industrial, or commercial; or (2) the type of applicant, whether such applicant is a city or urban county.”. (e) Reports of Comptroller General.— (1) (A) Not later than the expiration of the 1-year period following the date of enactment of this Act and every 3 years thereafter, the Comptroller General of the United States shall prepare and submit to the Congress a comprehensive report evaluating the eligibility standards and selection criteria applicable under section 119 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974. (B) Such report shall evaluate in detail the standards and criteria specified in such section that measure the level or comparative degree of economic distress of cities and urban counties and the effect of the grants awarded on the basis of such standards and criteria on stimulating the maximum economic development activity. (C) Such report shall also evaluate in detail the extent to which the economic and social data utilized by the Secretary in awarding grants under such section is current and accurate, and shall compare the data used by the Secretary with other available data. The Comptroller General shall make recommendations to the Congress on whether or not other data should be collected by the Federal Government in order to fairly and accurately distribute grants under such section based on the level or comparative degree of economic distress. The Comptroller General shall also make recommendations on whether or not existing data should be collected more frequently in order to ensure that timely data is used to evaluate grant applications under such section. (2) Not later than the expiration of the 3-month period following the date of the final competition for grants for fiscal year 1988 under section 119 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974, the Comptroller General of the United States shall prepare and submit to the Congress a comprehensive report describing the effect of the amendments made by this section on— (A) the targeting of grant funds to cities and urban counties having the highest level or degree of economic distress; (B) the distribution of grants funds among regions of the United States; (C) the number and types of projects receiving grants; 101 STAT. 1934 (D) the per capita funding levels for each city, urban county, or identifiable community described in subsection (p) of such section 119, receiving assistance under such section 119; and (E) the stimulation of the maximum economic development activity. (f) Regulations.— The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development shall issue such regulations as may be necessary to carry out the amendments made by this section. Such regulations shall be published for comment in the Federal Register not later than 60 days after the date of enactment of this Act. The provisions of section 119(d)(1)(D), section 119(d)(3), and section 119(d)(4) of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974, shall take effect on the date of enactment of this Act. (g) Applicability — (1) In general.— The amendments made by this section shall be applicable to the making of urban development action grants that have not received the preliminary approval of the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development before the date on which final regulations issued by the Secretary under subsection (f) become effective. For the fiscal year in which the amendments made by this section become applicable, such amendments shall only apply with respect to the aggregate amount awarded for such grants on or after such effective date. (2) Sunset of urban county competition rule.— Effective October 1, 1989, section 119(d)(6) of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 is repealed. (h) Limitation on Grant Amounts.— Section 119 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 is amended by adding at the end thereof the following: “(s) For fiscal years 1988 and 1989, the maximum grant amount for any project under this section is $10,000,000.”. (i) Consideration of Certain Counties as Cities Under Urban Development Action Grant Program.— Section 119(n)(1) of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new sentence: “Such term also includes the counties of Kauai, Maui, and Hawaii in the State of Hawaii.”.