Senators Cortez Masto, Cassidy Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Strengthen MRBs, MCCs

Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) earlier today introduced the Affordable Housing Bond Enhancement Act (S. 1805). The legislation, which NCSHA has worked on closely with the senators’ offices, will expand the HFAs’ ability to provide affordable homeownership and rental housing and use tax-exempt bond authority more efficiently by strengthening the Mortgage Revenue Bond (MRB) and Mortgage Credit Certificate (MCC) programs.

The bill includes many of NCSHA’s long-standing priorities for improving Housing Bonds:

• Increasing the MRB home improvement loan limit and indexing it for inflation;
• Allowing MRBs to be used for refinancing loans;
• Providing HFAs additional flexibility in how they utilize housing bond authority;
• Simplifying how a borrower’s MCC benefit is calculated;
• Reducing the time period for the MRB and MCC recapture tax from nine years to five;
• Extending the amount of time HFAs can use converted MCC authority from two years to four;
• Allowing HFAs to reconvert MCC authority back into MRBs two years after the conversion, rather than one;
• Eliminating lenders’ MCC reporting requirements;
• Reducing the required MCC public comment period; and
• Requiring the Internal Revenue Service to report to Congress annually on states’ use of private activity bond authority.

MRBs and MCCs historically have served as HFAs’ primary means of financing their affordable homeownership programs, having helped nearly four million home buyers combined since they were established.

Cortez Masto introduced a similar bill on her own last Congress. Cassidy is joining as a cosponsor for the first time.

NCSHA has written a section-by-section analysis of the bill that describes each of the provisions in more detail, as well as a one-page summary.

In her press release announcing the bill, Cortez Masto declared, “The opportunity to own a home is an important piece of the American Dream.” She said the bill would help her constituents buy or renovate their homes. Senator Cassidy added that the bill “helps families achieve that dream of homeownership.”

NCSHA Executive Director Stockton Williams said the bill “will enact a series of simple, commonsense reforms to the MRB and MCC programs that will allow HFAs to better stretch their resources and help more underserved households.”

In addition to NCSHA, the bill is supported by LISC, the National Association of REALTORS®, Mortgage Bankers Association, and Prosperity Now.

NCSHA thanks Senators Cortez Masto and Cassidy for their leadership on this critical affordable housing issue. We look forward to working with them, the HFAs, and industry partners to advance the legislation.