FreedomWorks Joins Coalition Letter Against New Housing Trust Fund

July 21, 2008

Dear President Bush:

Like all Americans, we are deeply concerned about the crisis in our financial markets. This is why we urge you to stand by your earlier statement and veto any bill that creates an “affordable housing trust fund” that would divert funds from the revenues of federal housing entities to at best, repetitive, and at worst, dubious purposes

As you noted in your Statement of Administration Policy of Oct. 9, 2007, (reaffirmed in an SAP release June 19, 2008), the trust fund proposal “could jeopardize the solvency of the FHA” and “create an undue and counterproductive reliance on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.” And we also agree that even at best, “the activities and program design” of the “trust fund” would be “largely redundant with those of” other federal housing programs.

We also strongly share your concerns that such an entity would “be susceptible to political influences that could compromise the goals of assisting as many low-income families in need as possible.” The housing bills recently passed by the House and Senate contain very few safeguards to keep the money from their proposed “trust funds” from being diverted for political purposes. This is of particular concern given that the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), who would likely be an eligible recipient of this “trust fund,” has already been found to have misused housing grants from AmeriCorps by that program’s inspector general.

We will stand by and praise to our members any veto of a bill containing these “trust fund” provisions.

Sincerely,

Larry Hart
Director of Government Relations
American Conservative Union

Tim Phillips
President
Americans for Prosperity

Grover Norquist
President
Americans for Tax Reform

Larry Cirignano
Founder
Catholic Vote

Steve Baldwin
President
CNP Action Inc.

Fred Smith
President
Competitive Enterprise Institute

John Berlau
Director, Center for Entrepreneurship
Competitive Enterprise Institute

Ron Pearson
President
Council for America

Tom Schatz
President
Council for Citizens Against Government Waste

Jim Boulet
Executive Director
English First

Matt Kibbe
President and CEO
FreedomWorks

Andrew Langer
President
Institute for Liberty

Richard Falknor
Chairman
Maryland Center-Right Coalition

Amy Ridenour
President
National Center for Public Policy Research

Pete Sepp
Vice President for Policy
National Taxpayers Union

Demos Chrissos
President
National Voters Alliance

Deneen Borelli
Fellow
Project 21

Morton Blackwell
Committeeman of Virginia
Republican National Committee

Kevin Kearns
President
United States Business & Industry Council