FHA Awaits Action on Lending Ban

The Senate on Friday sought to restore operating authority to the Federal Housing Administration, which had halted its widely used mortgage insurance program a day earlier.

But the effort was not assured success, because the legislation to which the renewed authority was attached was a large, catchall spending measure that remained sharply at odds with a House version and was threatened with a presidential veto.

FHA mortgage insurance authority, which already had been operating under stopgap legislation, had expired Thursday. That made the sixth time that the FHA has had to halt its lending since last October.

Even a week’s delay in resolving the problem could disrupt $3 billion in mortgage insurance to about 50,000 home buyers, agency officials said.