I hope you enjoyed your time yesterday and I invite you participate again today. Yesterday was an engaging time. I think our panelists brought not only good information but also their own brand of levity. Let me introduce our next speaker.

Art Garcia has headed the CDFI fund in the U.S. Treasury. He oversees programs that work at expanding capital and financial services in undeserved populations.

I've been witness to a senator who got up and repeated the same joke as the speaker before him because he hadn't heard it. Since I wasn't here yesterday, let me know if i'm repeating any jokes. Thank you for letting me speak to you today about a topic that is near and dear to my heart. This is a very important discussion we're having.

Today I'd like to give you an update on what's going on with the fund and how we feel we fit in with scale and sustainability. Every time I venture out, I get questions bout the administration's proposal for community development.

Thank you to the folks who worked so hard at the fund. Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. I'd like to thank Margy, Owen, and Bill. These guys changed my opinion about state employees.

Let's talk about what's going on at the fund. We must be focused on business as usual. We're in the midst of very important business. The staff is working very hard. We have 141 applications for awards as we speak. At the end of the process, we'll be awarding $24million. We expect to make that announcement in the fall. We hope to have all our technical assistance awards also announced at the same time.

We're hoping to offer the Native American award. We have $3.2M to offer there. I hear a lot about how important the certification process is. We've certified 740 CDFIs. We are now reviewing new applications and will be certifying those as soon as possible.

We are in the final stages of the vetting process for the new markets tax credit. We have $2B in allocatees. We will have an event hosted by Secretary Snow announcing the new markets tax credits. We're getting ready for an independent review to tell us how effective this program is and looking for reauthorization.

Business as usual also means the topic of sustainability, scale and impact. We in policy area follow the papers written on a regular basis. We talked to CDFIs yesterday to find out how we can promote the goals from the people on the ground who are doing this work.

I'm proud of a couple of organizations that we've had an acquaintance with: ACCION. ACCION Texas has instituted a block walking program to talk to people in the community and let them know what kinds of loans are available to low income minorities. They spread the word and consolidate their loan processes so they can quickly process the applications with more efficiency. THey have become the largest micro-loans in Texas. SInce 1996, the Fund has supported ACCION Texas.

The Family Home FUnd creates a source of dollars for home loans for minorities. They buy nonconforming loans from CDCUs and create cash flow for additional funding for mortgage loans. We did a $1M grant to the fund and they will leverage that for $14M mortgage loans. That gets me very excited.

Many of you may know that we've done a lot of work in the community assistance impact. Greenspan has pointed out our CIS program as an outstanding program. We use this tool for CDFIs and CDE not only to measure impact but also as a self-assessment measurement. With the TA program we offer technical tools.

A lot of places in America are living and achieving the American dream, but there are plenty of places that aren't. Such as in the Navajo tribes. We want to focus on these areas. We want to put more taxpayer dollars to these areas.

We want to put the grant-making programs and create a more direct line from the end user to the federal government. The legislation has gone through a first draft. We're going to have a formula driven proposal. We have an advisory committee. THey had their first meeting last week. We will keep you posted as that goes forward. We got to the table early and often so that CDFIs get access to these funds.

Finally, I would like to leave you with a thought for the day. Marianne WIlliamson quotes, "In every community there is work to be done. In every nation there are wounds to be healed. In every heart there is power to do it."

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Comments

Will the administration be increasing its CDFI request?

It will not be the call of the administration, but the call of Congress. There is a bill that has been signed by many Senators right now.

Would you consider a collateral pool of dead assets from USDA or HUD? We've now been directed to the Treasury. Is this something we could chat about in greater depth?

It's an interesting conversation. What I've heard is prima facia, but we're looking to innovate, so let's have the conversation.

As Judy suggested, there is some opposition to. Any programs you're thinking about for next year?

We're up for authorization. People on the hill think what we're doing is a good idea. We need to polish off some edges. We would welcome feedback on how we could go forward with our new markets tax credit program.

We want to get the financial assistance program to be stable and routing program. We want it to be less burdensome to the end user. I feel good about the fund right now. We're all rolling in the same direction. We're looking forward.

Mike Berry

Okay. I have to get a joke in too.

How many economists does it take to change a light bulb?

None. The market will take care of it.