Senate Democrats’ Budget Resolution Calls for Historic New Investments in Affordable Housing
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) Monday morning released the text of an agreement Senate Democrats reached on a proposed Budget Resolution for fiscal year (FY) 2022. This legislation would authorize $3.5 trillion in new federal spending for a variety of purposes, including affordable housing. Schumer also released a memorandum sent to Senate Democrats that calls for increased spending on some federal housing programs, including HOME, the Housing Trust Fund, and housing tax incentives, to be included among the investments.
The Budget Resolution includes specific instructions, known as reconciliation instructions, directing nearly every congressional committee to advance legislation by September 15 that will authorize new amounts of federal spending and, in some cases, achieve savings to offset spending increases. Bills advanced under the reconciliation process can pass the Senate via simple majority and cannot be filibustered. Congressional Democrats and the Biden Administration hope to use the reconciliation bill to address priorities they were unable to include in the bipartisan infrastructure bill currently being considered in Congress. The Senate is expected to pass the Budget Resolution on a party-line vote later this week.
The legislation itself provides general spending and revenue limits for each committee without specifying what legislative provisions must be included to enact them. The resolution directs the Senate Banking Committee and House Financial Services Committee, which oversee HUD housing and some transit programs, to report legislation spending $332 billion and $339 billion, respectively (the difference reflects the committees’ slightly different jurisdictions).
Schumer’s memo offers more details on how the Senate committees are expected to use their allocations. The Banking Committee’s priorities include “historic investments” in federal housing programs, with the memo specifically mentioning HOME, the Housing Trust Fund, Community Development Block Grant, and the Capital Magnet Fund. The memo also calls on the Banking Committee to provide funds for rental assistance, down payment aid, other homeownership initiatives, and public housing. Funding for down payment assistance and HOME are both NCSHA priorities for federal infrastructure legislation.
The Senate Finance Committee, which oversees the federal tax code, is charged with producing legislation that will produce $1 billion in deficit reduction. Schumer’s memo says that the legislation set the deficit reduction target at such a relatively small amount to give the Finance Committee the flexibility to raise revenue to offset the cost of the bill’s spending while also authorizing new or increased federal tax expenditures. The memo outlines “housing incentives” as one of the specific investments the Finance Committee will support. Expanding the Housing Credit and creating a Neighborhood Homes Investment Act are two of NCSHA’s other priorities for infrastructure legislation.
