House Passes FY27 USDA Appropriations Bill

On June 4, the House of Representatives narrowly passed H.R. 8646, the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2027 in a 213 – 210 vote, with nearly all Democrats and five Republicans voting against the funding measure. The bill would provide $22.5 billion in discretionary funding for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in fiscal year 2027 (FY27), which would be $675 million or nearly three percent less than enacted funding levels in FY26 but nearly $2 billion more than requested by the Trump Administration in April.

While overall funding for USDA would be slightly lower than current levels if H.R. 8646 is adopted by the Senate, most housing programs administered by the Rural Housing Service (RHS) would largely receive equal funding. Below is a summary of funding levels for key RHS housing programs.

• The loan level for the Section 502 Single-Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program would be $25 billion, the same as FY26 and $5 billion more than in the president’s budget request.
• The Section 502 Single-Family Housing Direct Loan Program would be funded at $1 billion, equal to the FY26 funding level and $17 million more than requested by the Trump Administration.
• The Section 515 Multifamily Housing Direct Loan Program would receive $50 million, the same amount as was enacted in FY26 and requested by the president.
• The Section 538 Multifamily Housing Guaranteed Loan Program would be funded at $400 million, equal to current funding levels but $100 million less than requested in the administration’s proposal.
• The Section 521 Rental Assistance Program would receive a total of $1.795 billion for renewals of existing rental assistance contracts for maintaining a sustainable rental assistance program. This is an increase of $80 million or five percent over the enacted FY26 funding level and equal to the president’s budget request. The bill also would grant USDA authority to continue its rental assistance decoupling pilot program, increasing the allowable number of units from 1,000 to 5,000 in FY27. The pilot allows USDA to preserve the affordability of units within Section 515 and 516 properties that have maturing or expiring USDA mortgages.
• The Section 542 Rural Voucher Assistance Program would receive $48 million, equal to current funding levels. The administration’s budget request called for the elimination of the program, believing the decoupling pilot reduces the need for tenant-based voucher assistance.
• The Rental Preservation Demonstration Program would receive $30 million, the same as current funding levels and what was requested by the Trump Administration.

The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration. The Senate Appropriations Committee postponed the scheduled markup of its own FY27 USDA funding bill last Thursday. A rescheduled date for that markup has not yet been announced.

A summary of the bill may be found here. For more information on program funding, see NCSHA’s budget chart.