Section 1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the Rural Housing Accessibility Act.
Section 2. Requiring certain public housing agencies to absorb port-in vouchers and limiting billing initial public housing agencies beyond 12 months
Section 8(o) of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f(o)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
(A) Definitions
In this paragraph—
(i) the term covered public housing agency means a public housing agency that, in a given fiscal year, utilizes less than 95 percent of the budget authority available to the public housing agency;
(ii) the term initial public housing agency has the meaning given the term initial PHA in section 982.4 of title 24, Code of Federal Regulations, or any successor regulation; and
(iii) the term portable family means a family holding a voucher under this subsection that seeks to rent a dwelling unit outside of the jurisdiction of the initial public housing agency.
(B) Requirement
A covered public housing agency that has jurisdiction over the area in which a portable family is seeking to use the voucher received from an initial public housing agency—
(i) shall notify the initial public housing agency whether the covered public housing agency will—
(I) absorb the voucher by using funds of the covered public housing agency; or
(II) bill the initial public housing agency for a period of not more than 12 months;
(ii) shall make assistance payments to the portable family under an annual contributions contract entered into between the covered public housing agency and the Secretary; and
(iii) may not bill the initial public housing agency for the assistance payments described in clause (ii) for a period of more than 12 months beginning on the effective date of the initial billing.