Congress

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) has released the text of his soon to be introduced Decent, Affordable, Safe Housing for All (DASH) Act (full text, overall summary, section by section summary).

The Senate voted 69-31 August 10 to pass the bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure package (with $550 billion in new spending), the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (H.R. 3684). All 50 Democrats and 19 Republicans voted in favor of the bill. This legislation does not include any LIHTC provisions, but it does include several housing-adjacent provisions.

The Senate Appropriations Committee advanced its FY 2022 appropriations bill for Agriculture, Rural Development, and the Food and Drug Administration. The bill contains substantial funding increases for several USDA rural housing programs, including $1.45 billion for rural rental assistance, an increase of $40 million.

The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee voted unanimously to favorably report the nomination of Damon Smith to serve as HUD general counsel. Smith currently serves as acting general counsel and was principal general deputy counsel for HUD during the Obama administration.

Coming in at over 2,700 pages, the group of 22 bipartisan senate negotiators released their $1 trillion infrastructure legislative text. While the bill does not include any items from the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act, it does contain several housing-related provisions

The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs will hold a nomination hearing to consider Julia Gordon to be Federal Housing Administration commissioner and assistant secretary for Housing at HUD at 10 a.m. ET on August 5. NH&RA sent a letter to the committee supporting Gordon’s nomination.

Last week the House passed fiscal year (FY) 2022 funding for nine of the 12 appropriations bills.

On Friday, the full House Appropriations Committee approved FY 2022 funding for HUD with a 33-24 vote. The bill includes $56.5 billion in HUD funding, a $6.8 billion (12 percent) increase over FY 2021. If enacted in its current form, several programs would see substantial increases over FY 2021 levels. This includes $500 million in additional funding for the HOME program, a $545 million for project-based rental assistance contracts (sufficient to renew all PBRA contracts), $3.4 billion in additional tenant-based rental assistance ($1 billion of which would be set aside for new vouchers) and $1.2 billion in additional funding for CDBG. 

President Joe Biden (D) and a bipartisan group of 21 senators reached an agreement on the contours of an infrastructure package. Details remain scarce, but at this point, we know that affordable housing provisions were not included in the bipartisan compromise package. The framework focuses on “more traditional” infrastructure items like roads, bridges, public transportation, water delivery, etc. It also aims to connect every American to reliable high-speed internet and drive down prices for internet service and close the digital divide. 

Last week, President Joe Biden (D) released the administration’s full fiscal year (FY) 2022 discretionary funding request to Congress. The HUD budget requests $68.7 billion, a $9 billion or 15-percent increase from the 2021 enacted level.

Last week the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs favorably reported Adrianne Todman’s nomination to be Deputy Secretary at HUD to the full Senate.

At 10 a.m. ET on May 19, the House Ways and Means Committee will hold a hearing on Leveraging the Tax Code for Infrastructure Investment.