Last week, the United States Senate considered multiple amendments to an appropriations minibus, H.R.2112, which includes the annual spending bills for Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development. Despite Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) hopes to approve the spending bill by the end of last week, the Senate instead made a deal to revisit the legislation and vote by November 1.

The current version of the THUD bill will cut the HUD budget by 10 percent over the 2011 budget and many industry experts believe the bill provides inadequate funding for several critical housing programs including tenant-based vouchers, project based rental assistance contracts, and public housing. Several amendments being considered by the Senate will directly affect federal affordable housing programs.

Senator Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), introduced an amendment, S.AMDT.857, which will extend recently expired loan limits on mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae; the amendment was approved by the Senate by a vote of 60-38. Many housing advocates expect Menendez’s amendment to be highly contested in the Republican-controlled House.

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) introduced S.AMDT.892, which will provide more flexibility in the closing and opening of Rural Development offices and was approved by unanimous consent.

Finally, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) proposed several amendments to the minibus legislation. Most notably, Coburn proposed S.AMDT.800 which would reduce funding for the Rural Development Agency by $1 billion. Another amendment proposed by Coburn, S.AMDT.795 would cancel funding committed by HUD, restrict future funding, and penalize developers by more than $500,000,000 for dated, vacant, incomplete or abandoned projects. Finally, S.AMDT.797 would restrict funding renovation, construction, leasing and purchasing of federal buildings.

While the appropriations minibus vote has been pushed back until after the Senate’s recess, it is still to be seen whether the House plans to move forward with its own appropriations bill.

To view the Summary and Full Text of H.R.2112, click here.
To view a list of all H.R.2112 Amendments, including the status of the amendments, click here.