Congress

The Housing, Community Development, and Insurance Subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing on November 20 at 2:00 pm ET entitled, “Safe and Decent? Examining the Current State of Residents’ Health and Safety in HUD Housing.” The hearing will be in Room 2128 of the Rayburn House Office Building and will […]

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), an original sponsor of Opportunity Zone legislation, and Reps. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) and Ron Kind (D-WI) sent a letter to the Treasury’s acting inspector general to requesting an investigation into recent reports from The New York Times, The Washington Post and ProPublica that found that White House and Treasury officials might […]

The Senate is expected to vote on the four-bill spending package today and lawmakers are now considering a not-so-short-term CR that would fund the government through the new year.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released the 2019 Strategic Plan for the Conservatorships of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and a new 2020 Scorecard for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Common Securitization Solutions.

On Tuesday, the Senate advanced a spending FY 2020 funding package that includes funding for Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science, Interior-Environment and Transportation-HUD. The full Senate is expected to vote on the package this week or early next week.

Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) introduced the Historic Tax Credit (HTC) Growth & Opportunity Act (S. 2615). The bill would eliminate the HTC basis adjustment requirement, increase the HTC from 20 percent to 30 percent for properties with rehabilitation expenses of less than $3.75 million (capped at $750,000), make it easier to meet the substantial rehabilitation test and create greater flexibility for nonprofits to partner with developers.

The House Committee on Appropriations’ Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies will hold an oversight hearing on HUD’s Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program on October 17 at 2 pm EDT. The hearing will feature HUD’s Irv Dennis, chief financial officer, Jeremy Kirkland, counsel to the inspector general, and David […]

2020 Democratic Presidential hopeful, Senator Michael Bennet (CO) released a plan to Tackle America’s Housing Affordability Crisis. The three tenants of his plan are Build More Affordable Housing Near Good Jobs, Help Middle-Class and Working Families Afford A Home and Reform Federal Housing Tax Incentives. Sen. Bennet calls for expanding the LIHTC by 50 percent, […]

The House Financial Services Committee (HFSC) released its October hearing schedule. On October 22 at 10:00 am EDT the full Committee will convene for a hearing entitled, “The End of Affordable Housing? A Review of the Trump Administration’s Plans to Change Housing Finance in America.” On October 29 at 10:00 am EDT the Subcommittee on […]

Last week HUD submitted its report on Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Partnership Challenges and Opportunities at the Local, State, and Federal Level to the House and Senate Appropriations committees. The report identifies the following challenges and opportunities to building partnerships with local organizations.

Representative Ed Case (D-HI) introduced the Protecting Local Authority and Neighborhoods Act (H.R. 4232), which would hold tech platforms like Airbnb and HomeAway responsible for illegal short-term rentals. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) prevents tech companies from being held legally responsible for most content posted by third parties. State and local governments have passed legislation banning short-term rentals that can deplete the stock of affordable housing, but tech rental platforms are using Section 230 of the CDA to sue or delay the laws from being implemented.

Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Tina Smith (D-MN) introduced the Rural Housing Preservation Act of 2019 (S. 2567). The bill would expand U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development (RD) rental assistance programs, permanently authorize the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Multifamily Housing Preservation and Revitalization program, and direct RD to better align its policies […]