¹ Complete Administration budget documents are available on the Web at http://w3.access.gpo.gov/usbudget/index.html. Departmental summaries are available on USDA's site, http://www.usda.gov, and HUD's site, http://www.hud.gov.

² For more information about the appropriations process, see HAC's information sheet on "Rural Housing and the Federal Budget Process," reproduced in Appendix E. For more information about the overall federal budget, contact the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 820 First St., N.E., Suite 510, Washington, DC 20002, 202-408-1080, http://www.cbpp.org, or the Coalition on Human Needs, 1700 K Street, N.W., Suite 1150, Washington, DC 20006, 202-736-5885, http://www.chn.org.

³ Budget authority and program levels are different, but linked, concepts. BA represents cost over the life of the loan, grant, or guarantee, and is affected by interest rates. In the past, BA could change as interest rates changed, so actual program levels could be quite different from those projected in the budget. Now, however, BA percentages are frozen at levels adopted by Congress, regardless of changes in interest rates, so by adopting the budget proposal's BA percentages Congress also adopts its program levels.

⁴ HAC has published a year-by-year statistical history of FmHA/RHS self-help loans and grants. A Brief and Selective Historical Outline of Rural Mutual Self-Help Housing in the United States is available from HAC for $4.50.

⁵ Figures for production since inception are available on HAC's Web site at www.ruralhome. org/rhs/index.htm.

⁶ These figures for budget authority do not include Veterans Administrations or FHA loan guarantees, the budget impact of revenue lost via the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, or some McKinney Act Homeless Assistance programs that are administered by other agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.