Federal Issues Committee
Hyatt Regency Hotel
Regency Room E/F
Long Beach, CA
Thursday, October 16, 2008
3:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Please Note: Only the C.A.R. Board of Directors may take action on behalf of the California Association of REALTORS®; not individual committees. The Summary of Action Items for the Board of Directors may be found at: 
http://www.car.org/meetings/carmeetings/summary-of-action-items/oct2008summary/

The archive section for each committee, including meeting materials for each committee, may be found at:
http://www.car.org/meetings/carmeetings/committee-materials-archive/

Set out below is a summary of Federal Issues Committee activity, including the additional action on those items (if any) by other C.A.R. bodies.   
 
CALL TO ORDER

The Chair convened the meeting of the Federal Issues Committee at 3:00 PM.

ACTION ITEM – Reforming Ratios of Common Interest Developments (CID)

A motion was made and seconded:

That C.A.R. “SUPPORT” the reforming of the rules for owner occupancy ratios of Common Interest Developments (CID) under the current FHA, GSE, CalVet, and VA programs.

Federal Issues Committee: Approved
Executive Committee: Approved
Board of Directors: Approved

A motion was made and seconded:

That C.A.R. adopt the NAR transportation principles:

1. Federal spending for transportation infrastructure should be sufficient to maintain the current physical condition and level of performance of highways and transit systems and to make improvements to reduce congestion and to foster economic development.  To finance increased transportation spending, C.A.R. and NAR support both a modest increase in the federal transportation user charge tax rate and indexing the tax rate to account for inflation.  In addition, the federal government should explore a variety of means to ensure a reliable stream of revenue for transportation funding so that revenues grow in step with increasing travel demand.
2. High occupancy toll lanes should be permitted on roads financed wit federal assistance.  All tolls collected on such lanes should be dedicated to transportation purposes in the same community in which they are collected.
3. Taxes levied on transportation users should be deposited in a trust account for spending exclusively on transportation purposes.
4. Interest on balances in the Highway Trust Fund should accrue to the Fund and be spent exclusively for transportation purposes.
5. States should have a large measure of flexibility in determining how Highway Trust Fund monies are spent within their borders.
6. Highway Trust Fund revenues should continue to be used for projects designed to mitigate air pollution by reducing vehicle travel.
7. The federal share of funding for new transit capital projects should remain on a par with the federal share of funding for highway projects.
8. Transportation planning and implementation should be fully integrated into a comprehensive community planning effort, coordinated with state and metropolitan planning processes, using substantial citizen involvement and civic leadership to achieve the consensus vision of the community.
9. The federal transportation funding bill should provide a predictable level of funding that avoids large changes from one year to the next.
10. All federal taxes levied on any fuel or alternative energy source used for surface transportation should be applied equally and deposited in the Highway Trust Fund.
11. The time required for environmental review of transportation projects should be significantly reduced without compromising environmental protections.
12. Federal surface transportation assistance programs for states should be structured so that:
     - State and local transportation planning is not biased in favor or one mode or another because of differences in federal program requirements.
     - Proportionally more funds are available in parts of a state with greater transportation needs.
     - Emphasis is placed on providing seamless connections between transportation modes.
     - Priority in spending should be given to maintaining the integrity and performance of existing investments in national transportation infrastructure.
13. Transportation improvement planning should consider the needs of all transportation users along a transportation corridor and provisions should be made to accommodate a variety of users in every transportation project, where possible.

Federal Issues Committee: Approved
Executive Committee: Approved
Board of Directors: Approved 

It was reported for information only that the Federal Issues Committee will create a healthcare working group that would be charged with:
- Developing policy guidelines on healthcare issues that can be used to evaluate legislation as it is introduced.
- Analyzing legislation as it is introduced and reporting their recommendations to the committee.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 PM