(EMAILWIRE.COM, February 18, 2009 ) WASHINGTON – “Today, President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which is critical to ensuring the country’s economic recovery. The fact that the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund is included in this significant legislation is an important recognition by Congress that the CDFI Fund plays a vital role in promoting economic revitalization in our Nation’s most distressed communities. Funding made available through the stimulus package will enable the CDFI Fund to support CDFIs and Community Development Entities (CDEs) across the country that are providing much needed capital, credit and financial services. These community-based lenders are on the front lines of battling the economic crisis and are well positioned to immediately and responsibly deploy resources to support homeowners and businesses. I can assure you that the CDFI Fund is mobilizing quickly to expeditiously deploy this new funding. A detailed announcement will be released shortly by the CDFI Fund to provide further guidance regarding the implementation strategy and schedule.”

Background
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provides $3 billion of New Markets Tax Credit allocation authority divided equally between fiscal year 2008 and fiscal year 2009. In addition to the CDFI Fund’s annual appropriation for fiscal year 2009, the legislation appropriates an additional $100 million, of which $90 million will apply to the CDFI Program, $8 million to the Native Initiatives, and $2 million to administrative expenses.

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