NCSHA Washington Report | May 16, 2025
A short walk from the U.S. Capitol, where House Republicans at this writing are laboring to pass the “big, beautiful bill” that contains much of President Trump’s top legislative priorities (with a huge expansion of affordable housing tax credits, about which more below), the U.S. Supreme Court has begun considering a case that could have significant implications for his agenda in numerous areas, including housing.
The court on Thursday heard oral arguments on challenges to the administration’s attempt, in a January executive order, to end birthright citizenship under the 14th amendment. District courts in three related cases have blocked the administration through “nationwide” (sometimes called “universal”) injunctions, a practice through which federal judges prevent governmental action “against all relevant persons and entities, whether or not such persons or entities are parties participating in the litigation.”
Though the case “comes to the justices through challenges to Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship, the primary issue before the court on Thursday [was] whether lower-court judges can issue” such injunctions to block administration policies generally on a nationwide basis. Courts have done so repeatedly in the first four months of Trump 2.0, with several of the orders impacting housing.
A high-profile example is the pair of injunctions currently blocking the White House’s attempt, in January, to freeze trillions of dollars in federal grants, loans, and financial assistance already approved by Congress, including a substantial amount of HUD funding.
There are other cases more narrowly related to housing. After the administration moved in March to cancel approved grants to nonprofit fair housing groups around the country, a district court ordered HUD to restore the money. In April, a preliminary injunction required HUD and other agencies to resume their disbursement of energy and infrastructure-related grants enacted during the Biden Administration, including the $1 billion Green and Resilient Retrofit Program, which HUD had halted.
Last week, a U.S. district judge issued a 14-day temporary restraining order (a potential precursor to an injunction) against HUD, the Department of Transportation, and the Federal Transit Administration, preventing the administration from imposing new conditions on federal grants related to White House executive orders on various social policies.
As of March, 17 nationwide injunctions had been issued in response to various Trump Administration actions, compared to 14 during the entirety of the Biden Administration. Whether the practice has reached “epidemic proportions,” as the administration argues, or is an appropriate response to Trump’s unprecedented use of executive orders to drive his agenda, is a matter of divided opinion in the legal community. Even a judge who issued one — reinstating fired federal workers — expressed “great reluctance.”
Indeed, “Supreme Court justices across the ideological spectrum have said they are troubled by at least some nationwide injunctions.” Still, some observers doubt the court will decide to rein in nationwide injunctions in the case at hand. And even the most favorable ruling possible for the administration wouldn’t necessarily end them completely, since many have arisen from challenges under a different statute, the Administrative Procedures Act, than applies here.
In any event, the courts, along with Congress, will have a huge say in the implementation of the Trump Administration’s agenda for the foreseeable future.
Stockton Williams | Executive Director
Washington Report will return May 30.
In This Issue
- NCSHA Sends OMB Regulatory Relief Recommendations
- Ways and Means Advances Tax Bill with Housing Credit Enhancements; Energy and Commerce Committee Rescinds Unobligated GGRF Balances
- Housing Advocates, Local Elected Leaders Write Congress in Support of Housing Credit Expansion
- Housing Subcommittee Discusses Housing Supply Innovation
- NCSHA in the News
- Looking Ahead
NCSHA Sends OMB Regulatory Relief Recommendations
This week, NCSHA submitted comments in response to an Office of Management and Budget Notice of Request for Information soliciting ideas on how the federal government can rescind or replace unnecessarily onerous regulations. NCSHA’s recommendations focus on streamlining regulatory guidance that hampers affordable housing production or provision of assistance to low-income households across housing programs at the Departments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Treasury and the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Housing Service, including cross-cutting regulations impacting federal funds. NCSHA sent a similar letter focused on HUD programs to Secretary Scott Turner last month.
Ways and Means Advances Tax Bill with Housing Credit Enhancements; Energy and Commerce Committee Rescinds Unobligated GGRF Balances
On Wednesday, after a marathon mark-up, the House Ways and Means Committee reported the tax portion of the 2025 reconciliation legislation to enact much of President Trump’s agenda. The bill would provide the largest expansion of the Housing Credit program in a quarter-century by expanding the 9 percent program by 12.5 percent for four years beginning in 2026; enacting a 25 percent bond financing threshold — down from 50 percent — for 4 percent credit projects financed with bonds that have an issue date after December 31, 2025, and before January 1, 2030; and establishing a basis boost of up to 30 percent for properties located in rural or Native American areas placed in service after December 31, 2025, and before January 1, 2030. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates the 10-year cost of the bill’s Housing Credit provisions at approximately $14.1 billion.
The bill also includes substantial reforms to the Opportunity Zone tax incentive and allows for 100 percent bonus depreciation for qualifying properties acquired and placed in service after January 19, 2025, and before January 1, 2030. It does not make changes to the tax exemption for municipal bonds, including private activity bonds, as some had feared early on it would. It would terminate as of December 31, 2025, several energy efficiency and green energy credits enacted in the Inflation Reduction Act relevant to the housing industry — the Section 25D Residential Clean Energy Credit and Section 45L New Energy Efficient Home Credit — and move up the phase-out period for the Section 48E Clean Electricity Tax Credit (formerly known as the Investment Tax Credit), which would begin to phase out beginning in 2029 and fully terminate by 2031.
The Ways and Means mark-up followed a mark-up in the Energy and Commerce Committee of its portion of the reconciliation bill in which it rescinded remaining unobligated balances of several programs, including the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) at the Environmental Protection Agency. The GGRF includes three programs: the Solar for All program, which made $7 billion available to states to implement solar upgrade initiatives; the National Clean Investment Fund, which made $14 billion in awards to three consortia to finance a variety of clean energy projects, including energy efficiency upgrades for eligible single- and multifamily housing; and the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator, intended to help community lenders provide grants to build capacity to provide clean energy financing. The current status of funding already awarded for these latter two programs is currently being contested by the Trump Administration and is subject to lawsuits that are still under court consideration.
This morning, the House Budget Committee met to stitch together the various committee-reported sections of the reconciliation bill — including those pieces advanced by the Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce committees — a necessary step before the full bill can be considered on the House floor. However, the vote in the Budget Committee failed to pass, with several hardline conservatives joining the committee’s Democrats in objecting to it. Private talks between Republicans will continue over the weekend as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) works to get the bill back on track with the hopes of being able to bring it to the floor next week. Conservatives have argued the bill does not go far enough to cut spending. Republicans are also still trying to reach a consensus on how to address the cap on the state and local tax deduction. If the House is able to pass the bill next week, the Senate will then take it up and could make further modifications to it. Congressional Republican leaders hope to pass the final bill so the president can sign it by July 4. For more information, see NCSHA’s blog.
Housing Advocates, Local Elected Leaders Write Congress in Support of Housing Credit Expansion
Over the last week, the ACTION Campaign — co-chaired by NCSHA and Enterprise Community Partners — coordinated and delivered two major sign-on letters to Congress pressing for enactment of the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act (AHCIA), including supporting inclusion of several AHCIA provisions in the 2025 reconciliation bill. On May 9, the ACTION Campaign sent to congressional leadership a grassroots letter signed by more than 2,600 organizations and businesses from across the nation. On May 12, the ACTION Campaign in partnership with the National League of Cities, National Association of Counties, and Mayors and CEOs for U.S. Housing Investment sent tax committee leaders a letter from 130 mayors, county executives, and county board chairs advocating for the AHCIA.
Housing Subcommittee Discusses Housing Supply Innovation
The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance Wednesday held a hearing to explore how emerging technologies and processes could increase the supply of affordable homes. Subcommittee Chair Mike Flood (R-NE) kicked off the hearing by arguing that increasing homeownership options for working families requires fostering the development of new building technologies rather than additional government subsidies, a view echoed by Committee Chair French Hill (R-AR). Ranking Member Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) agreed Congress should do more to foster innovation in home building and added that President Trump and congressional Republicans would exacerbate the housing crisis by reducing funding for federal housing programs, a view expressed by many subcommittee Democrats during the hearing.
Members and witnesses discussed modular homes, manufactured housing, 3D-printed homes, manufactured housing communities, zoning, and other developments. Witnesses included Bill Boor, board chair of the Manufactured Housing Institute; Eric Schaefer of Fading West; Dr. Andrew McCoy with the Virginia Center for Housing Research at Virginia Tech; and Colten Fleu of Mountain Justice, Inc. In his spoken and written testimony, Dr. McCoy praised Virginia Housing for embracing housing innovation, including a grant to support his center’s 3D concrete printing research.
NCSHA in the News
Financial Regulation News, 05.13.25, Bipartisan bill would help GSE’s develop low-income housing
NCSHA, State HFA, and Industry Events
- May 22 | Early-Bird Registration Ends | NCSHA’s Housing Credit Connect & Marketplace | Chicago
- June 24 – 27 | NCSHA’s Housing Credit Connect & Marketplace | Chicago
