ASHI Prepared to Promote Issues Regardless of Election Outcome
At press time, both Democratic and Republican Conventions have concluded, and America is entering the home stretch toward the U.S. Presidential election of 2004.
The election outcome remains too close to call despite President Bush’s initial post-convention bounce. ASHI is positioned to continue promoting government relations issues of great interest to ASHI members, regardless of the winner.
The platforms of the two Presidential candidates, Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry, have striking differences but also contain similar broad themes of interest to ASHI Membership. Both say they are committed to increasing home ownership in America. Both express hope that interest rates may be kept in check. Both profess support and allegiance to small businesses. Both seek to provide reasonable consumer protection, presumably including homebuyers.
Organizations like ASHI understand, and position themselves for the shifting sands of the political process. While the election winners change office-holders completely from time to time, the issues often remain the same, or at least connected. And the parliamentary and other processes of helping influence public policy actually vary only to a small degree.
So there will be a president, a vice president, a HUD secretary and various assis-tant secretaries, chairmen and ranking members of the housing subcommittees on Capitol Hill. We simply don’t know what their names will be yet.
While the full home inspection agenda will not become completely clear until we know the outcome of the election and the housing leaders are named, we do know there is a smattering of important issues that will be considered regardless of who wins the White House.
We regard the recent GAO report on home inspection as a green light to promote voluntary home inspections as much as possible, and government entities like HUD and others are primary vehicles for sending this positive message. It is quite possible that Capitol Hill will give consideration to the GAO report next year and consider recommendations to HUD. Meanwhile, at HUD, ASHI enjoys a good and growing relationship with the department. ASHI looks forward to future discussions with HUD staff to expand upon the modifications secured earlier this year to better promote voluntary home inspections and clarify consumer confusion between appraisals and home inspections. ASHI also enjoys its good relationship with the Appraisal Institute, a valuable friend and ally in clarifying the appraisal/home inspection distinction, and we anticipate our cooperative efforts to grow.
The last few years have seen considerable controversy concerning funding for HUD housing programs, and we expect that debate to continue. Of particular note are the budget and appropriations levels for the Section 8 voucher program and the Hope IV program. We would invite and welcome commentary by ASHI Membership regarding their involvement in these programs, their experiences and opinions. Depending upon the views of the Membership, ASHI may choose to take an advocacy stance on these programs, and ASHI Members’ direct experiences and comments would be invaluable in this effort.
RESPA reform eventually succumbed to a tortuous 2003, but support for some manner of RESPA rewrite lingers among some housing stakeholders and career staff at HUD. ASHI was deeply concerned by, and opposed to, the bundling provisions offered in the draft proposal. Bundling would introduce a severe new competitive element and materially alter fundamental ways that ASHI Mem-bership conducts business. There is no way to know whether the next effort on RESPA will contain such a controversial and damaging proposal, but it is a likely candidate for discussion. ASHI plans to work with other groups similarly threatened by bundling to seek exclusion of such a proposal. Intense political pressure from Capitol Hill played a key role in stopping the last RESPA rule, and we anticipate a similar approach next time.
Moving to other categories of issues, ASHI Membership may benefit from the competition among the political parties to service the growing army of small business owners in the country. We expect action on various tax deductions/credits to be considered, affecting individual tax burdens that directly impact self-employed and Sub S Corps shareholders. There is likely to be further action on accelerated depreciation and Section 179. Further, we expect action on other small business-related tax issues such as health savings accounts and expanded opportunities for tax-deferred retirement savings.
One of the most promising, yet politically challenging, issue of note to ASHI Mem-bership would be Association Health Plans, or AHPs, a topic on which ASHI has issued a Legislative Alert to its Membership. AHPs would allow associations like ASHI to offer favorable group health insurance coverage to its members, using its large national base of ASHI Membership as negotiating lev-erage with insurers. This would provide a huge benefit to the members and help them deal with the exploding costs of health insurance. AHP legislation has passed the House but is stalled in the Senate. The direction offered by the 2005 White House will play a decisive role in determining whether AHP legislation breaks lose or remains stalled.
Aside from AHPs, both campaigns recognize the growing problem of uninsured and underinsured individuals, and that a disturbing number are small business owners. The House Small Business Com-mittee already has begun investigating this subset of the uninsured/underinsured problem. We expect that this issue will come to the President in 2005.
This list of issues represents matters of significant importance, some critical, that we should expect regardless of the vote on November 2. The agenda will grow substantially when the positions are filled and the new administration an-nounces its priorities in January. All signs indicate a very active year for ASHI’s government relations efforts. Of course, we continue to seek the active input of ASHI Membership in identifying new, emerging issues to undertake.
In closing, ASHI is not endorsing a candidate and is not taking a position
in the election. ASHI conducts itself as a non-partisan organization in Washington, D.C. Regardless of which party controls the White House, the Senate or the House, ASHI has carefully cultivated friends and contacts across the political spectrum to ensure it has the access it needs to influence policy changes in 2005 and beyond for the benefit of its members.
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