Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Approves FY 2015 HUD Funding Bill
On June 3, the Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (T-HUD) Appropriations Subcommittee reported its FY 2015 funding bill by voice vote. No amendments were offered. The full Senate Appropriations Committee will consider the bill on June 5.
The Subcommittee has not released its bill. A bill summary released after the markup states the bill, after accounting for the decline in Federal Housing Administration (FHA) receipts available to offset spending, includes $45.8 billion for HUD programs—$369 million more than enacted in FY 2014 and $853 million less than the President’s FY 2015 Budget request.
In her opening statement, T-HUD Subcommittee Chairman Patty Murray (D-WA) said, “This bill makes crucial investments in community development and affordable housing programs and preserves an essential part of the country’s safety net by protecting housing assistance for low-income families and veterans.” Appropriations Chairman Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) added that this bill is a jobs bill and said it “meets the immediate compelling needs of our people and the long-range needs of our country.”
According to the summary, the bill would fund:
- HOME at $950 million, $50 million less than the FY 2014 enacted level, $250 million more than included in the House Appropriations Committee-passed bill, and equal to the President’s Budget request.
- Project-Based Section 8 rental assistance at $9.7 billion, $200 million less than the FY 2014 level and equal to the House bill and the President’s request.
- Housing Choice Vouchers at $19.6 billion, $385 million more than the FY 2014 level, $205 million more than the House bill, and $483 million less than the President’s request.
- Homeless Assistance Grants at $2.15 billion, $40 million more than the FY 2014 level and the House bill, and $261 million less than the President’s request.
- Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) at $3.02 billion, $10 million less than the FY 2014 level, $20 million more than the House bill, and $220 million more than the President’s request.
The bill summary says the Committee is recommending several initiatives to “improve federal coordination and reduce duplication and overlap.” According to the summary, the bill includes a provision to authorize HUD to conduct an energy savings demonstration in the project-based Section 8 program. The bill would also increase the cap on the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program to 185,000 units from the current 60,000 unit cap (the House bill does not increase the cap).
