This new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities examines three pending voucher reform bills in Congress and their effects on distribution and funding for Section 8 vouchers in 2007.  The report includes a detailed analysis of the effects of the proposals by state and by agency. 

Deciding on which approach to use is a key issue for Congress in the appropriations bills that it will consider after the election.  The CBPP analysis finds:

• The formula for distributing funds included in legislation that the House Financial Services Committee recently approved -- the Section 8 Voucher Reform Act -- would make the most efficient use of these funds.  Under the funding level Congress seems likely to provide for housing vouchers in 2007, this formula would avoid any cuts in the number of vouchers in use and allow agencies to restore many of the vouchers lost in recent years. 
• In contrast, maintaining the existing distribution formula, as a bill approved by the House Appropriations Committee would do, would result in the loss of 26,000 vouchers, despite spending the same amount of money.
• The Senate Appropriations Committee has approved a bill that contains some, but not all, of the changes contained in the Financial Services Committee bill; under it, new voucher cuts would not occur, but most of the earlier voucher cuts would not be restored.