Regulation & Policy Development

• Reinventing the Rural Housing Service Single-Family Housing Direct Loan Program
• Providing Research and Policy Support for the Congressional Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction and Financing Task Force

Challenge Solution Benefit

Challenge
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Rural Housing Service (RHS) recognized the need to "reinvent" and streamline its regulations for the Single-Family Housing Direct Loan Program . The thousands of pages of regulations for this program mixed policy and procedure. Without a clear separation, even routine changes in administrative practice required the Agency to go through the regulatory change process, which was both inefficient and expensive. In addition, the public to whom the regulations were directed had a difficult time comprehending the regulations. RHS asked ICF International to translate these dense regulations and guidance materials into readable and accessible products.

Solution
To assist RHS with its regulatory streamlining, ICF International first reviewed RHS's existing regulations for redundancy, inconsistency, applicability, and level of clarity. We also obtained input from national and field office experts and various stakeholders outside of the Agency who are affected by this regulation. Then, utilizing the "plain language" directives mandated by the federal government, ICF International re-wrote the regulations in a simple and organized style to improve clarity and accessibility of the information to public audiences. We also separated policy requirements from procedural requirements so that routine administrative changes would not necessitate regulatory change. In addition, ICF International worked closely with RHS national and field office staff to create handbooks for regional staff that thoroughly explained the new regulations and procedures. The handbooks' user-friendly format includes examples, sample calculations, and checklist tools. The revised regulations were published soon after ICF International completed this project.

Follow-on work includes similar streamlining for the Farm Service Agency , streamlining for the RHS Multifamily Housing Direct Loan Programs, and the creation of handbooks for the RHS Section 538 Multifamily Guaranteed Loan Program.

Benefit

• Provide RHS staff with clear and consistent guidance, allowing staff to work more efficiently.
• Help improve relations among RHS, the public, and lenders because policies, procedures, and responsibilities of the various parties have been clarified.
• Increase the ability of RHS to make revisions to administrative procedures without changing the actual regulation.
• Cost much less to produce than originally planned.

Challenge Solution Benefit

Challenge
Despite reductions in blood lead levels since 1980, lead poisoning continued to be a tremendous health risk to young children in the early 1990's. While earlier laws removed lead from gasoline and food cans, little had been done to remove it from lead-based paint in homes built before 1978 and from lead-contaminated soil. Since the problem was so expansive, solutions needed to address health concerns of families and children in lead-contaminated homes, liability interests of insurance companies, cost and (dis)investment concerns of property owners, and legal interests of the court system. In 1993, Congress mandated the Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction and Financing Task Force to study ways by which lead hazards could be reduced in pre-1978 housing while addressing the interests of affected individuals. The project was challenged by the competing interests of its stakeholders; the inseparable intersection of opposing solutions; and the vastness and urgency of the problem. ICF International was asked to support the Task Force with these challenges by assisting with research, data collection, meeting facilitation, and writing the final report.

Solution
Working for multiple clients—EPA, HUD, and the 39-member Task Force—required coordination, collaboration, and absolute neutrality. ICF International met these challenges by first assembling a team of experts—staff and consultants with legal, financial, medical, and insurance credentials—to assist our project team with research and policy support. We then prepared briefing papers, conducted financial analyses of proposed policies, facilitated meetings, provided research and data to inform Task Force discussions with Congress, produced interim research reports, and published the final report of the Task Force, Putting the Pieces Together: Controlling Lead Hazards in the Nation's Housing.

Benefit

• The Task Force received research and policy support that was vital to producing informed recommendations and writing the final report.
• The Task Force was connected to key experts in fields affected by lead-hazard control. These experts provided important insight on the lead-hazard problem and helped guide the Task Force's development of conclusions and recommendations.

View our Lead-Based Paint page for more information.