By Burnam                                             H.B. No. 3609
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to restructuring contracts for certain low-income housing
 1-3     assistance.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Under the authority granted by the contract with
 1-6     the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development under
 1-7     the Multifamily Assisted Housing Reform and Affordability Act of
 1-8     1997 (Title 5, Pub. L. No. 105-65), and subject to that Act, the
 1-9     Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs shall contact
1-10     owners of property who have contracted to provide housing
1-11     assistance under Section 8, United States Housing Act of 1937 (42
1-12     U.S.C.  Section 1437f et seq.) and whose contracts have expired or
1-13     soon will expire, and attempt to restructure the contracts with
1-14     those property owners to ensure permanent affordability under the
1-15     Section 8 housing assistance program for those properties.
1-16           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-17     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-18     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-19     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-20     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-21     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-22     passage, and it is so enacted.