WASHINGTON — The House took emergency steps Wednesday to keep vital federal programs from going broke while Congress is absent next month, removing the threat that people would lose their unemployment checks or chances to get a low-interest housing loan while lawmakers are on vacation.
The legislation, passed 363-68, includes the transfer of more than $14 billion from the general treasury fund to endangered federal trust funds for unemployment benefits and highway projects.
“If we fail to act today, our people, our states and our economy will be harmed,” said Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga.
The vote came as the House planned to break this week for its summer recess. The Senate is expected to approve the legislation before it recesses at the end of next week.
The bill has three parts: bolstering the federal unemployment-insurance trust fund and the highway trust fund, and increasing lending authority for the Federal Housing Administration, a major source of low-interest housing loans. All three programs could run out of money in August without congressional action.
The bill provides “such sums as may be necessary” for the federal unemployment-insurance fund, a pool of money financed by payroll taxes. Aides estimated the actual transfer of money from the general treasury will be about $7.5 billion.
The program backs up state unemployment programs and helps pay for federally mandated extensions of state unemployment benefits.
The bill also raises the ceiling for the FHA’s mortgage-insurance program for this fiscal year from $315 billion to $400 billion. The securities-guarantees authority for the Government National Mortgage Association — or Ginnie Mae — would increase from $300 billion to $400 billion.
The highway trust-fund portion shifts $7 billion from the general budget to the fund, the pot of money that is supposed to provide the $40 billion the federal government spends every year on roads, bridges and infrastructure.
It would be the second such bailout for the fund in a year, following an $8 billion transfer from the general budget last September.
The infusion of money would allow the fund to stay solvent through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
