A
case in point is long-term reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance
Program, which expires in just two weeks. The bill is popular on a broad,
bipartisan basis, with some three-quarters of the House passing the bill and
most of the Senate passing a previous version of it. But because the bill is
noncontroversial, it’s become a magnet for add-on provisions that could derail
its consideration...
Consequently, REALTORS® will be asking their members to call for a vote on a "clean" bill on the Senate floor without delay. "This is something so simple that lawmakers can get done," said NAR Chief Lobbyist Jerry Giovaniello, who spoke before a packed room of REALTORS® Wednesday morning prior to their Hill visits at the 2012 NAR Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo.
Consequently, REALTORS® will be asking their members to call for a vote on a "clean" bill on the Senate floor without delay. "This is something so simple that lawmakers can get done," said NAR Chief Lobbyist Jerry Giovaniello, who spoke before a packed room of REALTORS® Wednesday morning prior to their Hill visits at the 2012 NAR Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo.
Key
real estate priorities, including the mortgage interest deduction, could come
under the spotlight towards the end of the year as the Congressional session
comes to a close and national elections are held. Lawmakers will be faced with
expiration of the tax cuts enacted during the George W. Bush administration. The
price tag for extending these cuts is some $4 trillion, which would put pressure
on lawmakers to find offsets elsewhere. That would make cuts to real estate tax
benefits — chief among them the MID — attractive, because they are among the
biggest sources of cuts available to the government.
NAR
Director of Tax Policy Linda Goold advised REALTORS® to resist calls by their
members of Congress to find alternative cuts to the MID, because trading off the
MID for cuts elsewhere is a false choice. "The MID has been in the tax code for
as long as deductions have been in it," said Goold. "Home ownership is not a
special interest."
One
of NAR's consumer priorities, extending mortgage cancellation relief, also
expires at the end of the year, so REALTORS® will be asking lawmakers to
co-sponsor legislation to keep that benefit going. It exempts households that
have had their mortgage modified or sold their home in a short sale from having
to pay tax on any debt forgiven by the lender.
Other
priorities during this week's Hill visits include getting more liquidity into
commercial markets by raising a lending cap on some credit unions and creating a
covered bond market, passing reforms to keep the FHA financially healthy, and
getting lawmakers to write letters to prevent regulators from making it harder
for creditworthy households to get reasonably priced mortgage financing.
—
Robert Freedman, REALTOR® Magazine