Congress

Last week, the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee held a hearing titled “Building Consensus to Address Housing Challenges” that covered a wide range of housing industry issues that make housing unaffordable, including LIHTC, zoning and land use regulation, Housing First strategies to ending homelessness, flood insurance and mortgage fees.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) unveiled legislation that would create an interagency council, like the current U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH), to analyze and strengthen affordable housing in the U.S.

The House and Senate voted to rescind the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule via the congressional review act process.

The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs held a nomination hearing for Dr. Jared Bernstein to be chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and Solomon Greene to be an assistant secretary of Policy Development & Research at HUD and David Uejio to be assistant secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at HUD.

Representatives Claudia Tenney (R-NY) and Terri Sewell (D-AL) introduced the New Markets Tax Credit Extension Act (H.R. 2539) in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The Campaign for Housing and Community Development Funding (CHCDF) is leading a sign-on letter to urge Congress to oppose any cuts to federal affordable housing, homelessness and community development programs, and to instead invest in these vital programs in Fiscal Year 2024.

With the election of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) now settled, House Republicans have begun announcing committee leadership and assignments for the 118th Congress.

The Senate, by a vote of 68-29, and the House of Representatives, by a vote of 225-201, passed a full-year omnibus appropriations bill for Fiscal Year (FY) 2023.

Funding for the federal government is set to expire on December 15 and Congress is poised to pass a one-week stopgap spending bill to extend Friday’s deadline to fund the government as negotiations continue on a deal to settle disputes over a full year funding agreement with new topline spending levels.

The 118th Congress will most likely be a divided Congress with Democrats retaining the Senate and Republicans taking over the House of Representatives.

Fiscal Year 2022 funding runs out on September 30, and the federal government begins Fiscal Year 2023 on October 1.

Over the weekend, the Senate passed the Inflation Reduction Act via the reconciliation process, which only requires passage via a simple majority.