FYI: Senate appropriators are expected to mark-up their version of a Housing and Urban Development funding bill this week. The House version, passed in July, offered only $50 million for the Hope VI program (which the White House wants eradicated altogether) and funded Section 8 vouchers at a level that advocates have argued will require the agency to cut 63,000 vouchers currently in use. The National Low Income Housing Coalition, a Washington lobby group, said lobbyists expect the Senate to budget more money for Hope VI than the House, but to keep funding well below the $570 million budget it had this year. [9/2/03]