{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.fetterman.senate.gov/fetterman-lummis-introduce-bipartisan-bill-to-scale-pennsylvanias-whole-home-repairs-program-to-the-national-level/", "Fetterman, Lummis Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Scale Pennsylvania\u2019s Whole-Home Repairs Program to the National Level", "2024-03-05", "2024", "2024-03", "Democrat", "Senate", "PA", "John Fetterman", "F000479", "www.fetterman.senate.gov", "fetterman", "https://www.fetterman.senate.gov/press-release/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, DC \u2013 Today, U.S. Senators John Fetterman (D-PA) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) introduced the Whole-Home Repairs Act. The bill would create a national five-year pilot program to expand on a wildly successful and popular Pennsylvania program designed to help homeowners with critical home repairs.\n\nThe Whole-Home Repairs Act is a crucial piece of solving the broader housing shortage the country is facing. When families can\u2019t afford repairs, we lose housing units to blight, which further exacerbates the housing crisis. The bill helps address this issue by allowing more families to keep their homes in good condition so they can stay in them. The bill will also create a one-stop shop that will help ensure that money allocated through existing programs is efficiently spent.\n\n\u201cPennsylvania\u2019s Whole-Homes program was an incredible success,\u201d said Sen. Fetterman. \u201cThis bill will make it so that more working families can afford repairs for their homes and help ensure money that goes out through existing programs goes further. We are in a housing crisis \u2013 and this is one, critical piece of the solution. It\u2019s a perfect example of how government can work in concrete ways to meaningfully improve people\u2019s lives. I\u2019m so proud to introduce a bill to bring this program to the federal level.\u201d\n\n\u201cMany low-income families throughout the Cowboy State struggle when applying for federal home repair grants due to months-long backlogs and unnecessary red tape that make these programs impossible to navigate,\u201d said Sen. Lummis. \u201cI am partnering with Senator Fetterman to cut this red tape and make it easier for low-income homeowners and small landlords to return their properties to safe conditions for Wyoming families.\u201d\n\nYears of deferred maintenance\u201dlargely due to high and rising repair and utility costs\u201dhave led to homeowners and renters being forced to live with leaky or collapsed roofs, exposed wiring, mold, unsafe heating, lead paint, drafty windows, faulty plumbing, and other health and safety risks. And in both rural and urban communities, existing programs are overly bureaucratic, inefficient, and have failed to fully address the scope of these problems.\n\nIn response to these known problems, a bipartisan group of Pennsylvania lawmakers passed the Whole-Home Repairs program in 2022 to create a one-stop shop to help with repairs, weatherization, and adaptions in homes for older residents or individuals with disabilities. The program allows low- and moderate-income homeowners and small landlords to apply for grants and loans to make needed repairs. The program was both successful and popular and has helped thousands of people address urgent repair needs. An incredible 95% of Pennsylvania counties applied for funding, demonstrating the breadth and enormity of the need.\n\nThe Whole-Homes Repairs Act creates a national version of this popular state program.\n\nSenator Fetterman has spoken about the success of Pennsylvania\u2019s Whole-Homes Program at Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Development hearings as a way of addressing the housing shortage and disinvestment in forgotten communities across Pennsylvania.\n\nThe Whole-Home Repairs Act has been endorsed by the Housing Assistance Council, National NeighborWorks Association, LISC, Habitat for Humanity, Council for Affordable and Rural Housing, National Low Income Housing Coalition, National Housing Law Project, People\u2019s Action, National Association of Towns and Townships, Window and Door Manufacturers Association, and Pennsylvania Stands Up.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T17:55:42Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.fetterman.senate.gov/fetterman-lummis-introduce-bipartisan-bill-to-scale-pennsylvanias-whole-home-repairs-program-to-the-national-level/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8585699833929539, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}