I'm confused. The bill creating the the National Housing Trust Fund and the Capital Magnet Fund -- the same funds that were designated to receive activist group money in Dodd's bailout plan -- was passed in April, signed into law by Bush on July 30, and became effective immediately.
Here's the bill, with links to the votes on passage, etc.: H.R. 3221: Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008
(SEC. 1131. & SEC. 1337)
Here's the celebratory announcement by the activist coalition of "The National Housing Trust Fund Campaign" on their website.
According to the WSJ, Dodd's bill "creates a permanent program creates an annual tax of 4.2 basis points on the mortgages that Fan and Fred purchase each year. Initially this money will go to finance losses resulting from the bill's bailout of refinanced mortgages. But by 2012 most of the cash from this tax will be directed to the new "affordable housing" funds..." and "they've written the bill to steer the cash toward some of their favorite political allies..." and "Much of the political clout will be enjoyed by state politicians once they receive the checks from HUD. The state pols will be free to share the wealth with favored organizations, which will include both nonprofit and for-profit groups with an agenda." (Frank had a different tax scheme, with the same $ result, that didn't make it to the final bill.)
Since the Fan/Fred takeover, these groups are concerned that the slush fund will be affected, and apparently Dodd's bailout was designed to insure that the money would keep on rolling into the Trust Fund, no matter what happens to the economy.
By the way, the NHTF Campaign has a lovely 50-page booklet of endorsers, broken down by state, on their website (pdf file) that's a virtual who's who of activist groups and Democratic shills across America. ACORN, of course, is first on the list.
BTTT