NCSHA Washington Report | December 19, 2025

President Trump caught our attention Wednesday night when, as part of his address to the nation, he said, “Early, the new year, and you will see this in the new year, I will announce some of the most aggressive housing reform plans in American history.”

Was he suggesting imminent action by the Treasury Department on a sale of some of the federal government’s effective ownership of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which he first hinted at last spring and which Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said earlier this month the administration was “well down the road” towards doing, with an eye on the first quarter of 2026?

While a Fannie-Freddie offering of the size speculated in the media, $30 billion, would be nothing to sneeze at, few would consider a sale in and of itself to be “reform” of the federal government’s control of the companies or their role in the U.S. housing finance system. Almost any substantive moves on that front could have significant implications for housing affordability.

Perhaps the president was alluding to regulatory relief. For months, his staff have workshopped ideas for ways Washington might be able to get local jurisdictions, which are responsible for most bottlenecks, to ease up on zoning and land-use rules to allow more home building and apartment construction. It’s a tough nut, practically and politically, to crack.

An easier path in the right direction for the administration would be to reform the excessive overlays of federal regulations that make almost any aspect of building, buying, owning, and operating housing more expensive than it needs to be. We have ideas.

Maybe President Trump was signaling support for the significant bipartisan momentum on housing in Congress, reflected most visibly in the ROAD to Housing Act, which passed the Senate in October, and the Housing for the 21st Century Act, which sailed through the House Financial Services Committee on a 50–1 vote this week.

Both bills contain good ideas, including real reforms of existing programs. Getting the House and Senate to a compromise that can pass both chambers will surely depend on President Trump’s involvement.

Could an “aggressive” approach to “housing reform” encompass a Fannie-Freddie offering, federal regulatory relief, and a White House signing ceremony for a big affordable housing law?

We also should expect the White House to tie action on housing affordability to two other themes of the president’s remarks, which will be central both to policymaking and political messaging in a high-stakes congressional (and in 36 states, gubernatorial) election year in 2026: immigration and interest rates.

The president and multiple administration officials have blamed high housing costs on unchecked immigration, and agencies across the federal government have put in motion major restrictions on immigrants’ access to federally financed and assisted housing, with more likely to come.

And President Trump has made clear he expects the Federal Reserve Board, led by a new chair he will appoint early next year, to “lower interest rates by a lot,” with the expectation that lower home mortgage rates will follow.

While NCSHA staff will be working on these and other issues through the end of the year, this will be our last newsletter of 2025. See you next year.

Stockton Williams | Executive Director

Washington Report will return January 9.

In This Issue

• Financial Services Committee Approves Affordable Housing Package; HOME Reform Act Included
• IRS Publishes National Pool Allocations
• HUD Extends HOTMA Compliance Deadline
• Senate Confirms Nominations for Key HUD Posts
• NCSHA in the News
• Looking Ahead

Financial Services Committee Approves Affordable Housing Package; HOME Reform Act Included
The House Financial Services Committee Wednesday overwhelmingly passed an affordable housing package containing more than 20 different bills introduced by committee members from both parties. The bill — titled the Housing for the 21st Century Act — was negotiated by Committee Chair French Hill (R-AR), Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-CA), Housing Subcommittee Chair Mike Flood (R-NE), and Ranking Member Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO).

The legislation includes several bills supported by NCSHA, most notably the HOME Reform Act of 2025 (H.R. 5798), which would improve the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, and the Community Investment and Prosperity Act raising the cap on banks’ public welfare investments, a category that includes investments in the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program. Several of the bill’s provisions are identical or similar to provisions included in the ROAD to Housing Act, which the Senate passed in its version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) earlier this year. Congressional leaders ultimately dropped those housing provisions from the final version of the NDAA, despite vigorous efforts from numerous housing advocates, including NCSHA and many HFAs, due to concerns raised by Hill about Republican support and a desire to move housing legislation through regular order.

The Housing for the 21st Century Act will now be reported to the full House. It is not yet known when or if the package will be brought to the floor for consideration. Moreover, if the House passes the bill, the House and Senate will attempt to negotiate a compromise between it and the ROAD to Housing Act.

NCSHA released a statement supporting the bill earlier this week. More information is available in our blog.

IRS Publishes National Pool Allocations
Yesterday, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) published Revenue Procedure 2026-9 providing allocations to state Housing Credit allocators for the 2025 national pool. Twenty-five states will receive a total of $13,100,588 in Housing Credit authority. The publication of the revenue procedure was delayed due to the government shutdown that ended in mid-November.

Typically, state Housing Credit allocating agencies must allocate national pool credits before the end of the calendar year. However, given the delay, NCSHA urged IRS not to penalize states if they are unable to allocate 2025 national pool credits before January 1, 2026, allowing those credits to carry over into next year and not impacting a state’s ability to qualify for the 2026 national pool. The revenue procedure clearly states that agencies will not fail to qualify for the 2026 national pool if they do not allocate 2025 national pool credits before the end of 2025. NCSHA has also clarified with the IRS Chief Counsel’s office that states will not lose 2025 national pool credits if they are not allocated by this year’s end.

HUD Extends HOTMA Compliance Deadline
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Office of Housing issued a notice on Wednesday further extending the deadline for compliance with new Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act (HOTMA) requirements through January 1, 2027, for programs including Project-Based Rental Assistance. This extension follows an earlier extension of the HOTMA compliance date to January 1, 2026.

Senate Confirms Nominations for Key HUD Posts
The U.S. Senate voted on Thursday to confirm four nominees for HUD leadership positions: Frank Cassidy as Federal Housing Administration Commissioner and Assistant Secretary of Housing, Joseph Gormley as President of Ginnie Mae, Ben Hobbs to serve as HUD Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing, and Ronnie Kurtz as HUD Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development. The nominations were included in a package of 97 nominees approved via a single party-line vote of 53–43, with all Republicans present voting in support and all Democrats opposed. NCSHA previously voiced support for Cassidy’s and Gormley’s nominations.

Also approved as part of the package was Travis Hill’s nomination to serve as Chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

NCSHA erroneously reported in last week’s newsletter that the Senate had confirmed the nominees on a vote held December 11. That vote was a procedural motion to allow the nominees to be considered in a single package. We regret the error.

NCSHA in the News
The Bond Buyer, 12.9.25, Housing bill dropped from NDAA

Looking Ahead
NCSHA, State HFA, and Industry Events

• December 19 | Group Room Rate Expires | NCSHA’s HFA Institute 2026 | Washington, DC
• December 19 | Application Deadline | Vera Institute of Justice RFP: Opening Doors Technical Assistance
• January 11 – 16 | NCSHA’s HFA Institute 2026 | Washington, DC
• January 28 | NCSHA Webinar: Generating Additional Funding with Recycled Bonds | Virtual
• January 28 – 29 | The Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition Annual Meeting | Miami, FL
  Jennifer Schwartz will speak at this event.