Research & Innovations

On September 19, 2019, the full Senate Appropriations Committee agreed to, and unanimously passed, their version of the FY20 funding bill for Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies (T-HUD) on a recorded vote of 31 to 0, with a manager’s amendment making technical changes to the bill offered by T-HUD Subcommittee Chairwoman Susan Collins (R-ME), as the only amendment agreed to by the committee.

Chairwoman Collins said about the bill, “(t)his legislation will support job creation and economic development, allow us to make critical improvements to our infrastructure, provide housing assistance for low-income seniors and other vulnerable populations, and enhance oversight of the FAA’s aviation safety and aircraft certification programs.”

The previous week, the Senate appropriations committee agreed to allocations for the 12 subcommittees with T-HUD receiving $74.3 billion in total discretionary funding. Of that amount in today’s action, the discretionary funding level allocated to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) totaled $48.6 billion, an increase of $2.3 billion above the FY19 enacted level.
 
In a familiar pattern and reprise of repudiating Trump Administration budget proposals, the Senate T-HUD bill reflects Congress’ continuing commitment to fund critically important housing and community development programs the Administration has proposed rescinding, cutting, or eliminating.
 
As T-HUD subcommittee ranking member Jack Reed (D-RI) stated during subcommittee markup, the bill “rejects draconian cuts from the Trump Administration and provides needed resources to prevent and end homelessness, and a real path out of poverty. But we’ve got to do more. We must make forward-looking investments in our national infrastructure, including our roads, bridges, housing, and new technologies. This bill is a concrete example of bipartisan progress, but much more is possible if we focus on building bridges, not walls.” During full committee consideration, Reed further stated, “we have a housing problem,” citing the issues of housing affordability, homelessness, housing shortages, and more.

In a major win for housing authorities, the bill includes close to verbatim language offered by CLPHA and other public housing industry groups to reject HUD’s attempt to force PHAs to execute a highly problematic revised ACC without mutual agreement by public housing agencies. The ACC language in the Senate bill reads,

“Sec 233. None of the funds made available by this or any prior Act may be used to require or enforce any changes to the terms and conditions of the public housing annual contributions contract between the Secretary and any public housing agency, as such contract was in effect as of December 31, 2017, unless such changes are mutually agreed upon by the Secretary and such agency: Provided, That such agreement by an agency may be indicated only by a written amendment to the terms and conditions containing the fully authorized signature of its chief executive. Provided Further, That the Secretary may not withhold funds to compel such agreement by an agency which certifies to its compliance with its contract.”

Overall, for CLPHA members the funding levels in the Senate bill are generous in some accounts and challenging in others. The T-HUD bill is expected to be packaged together with other subcommittee appropriations bills into a minibus and offered for passage on the Senate floor. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s vow to pass as many spending bills as possible before the beginning of the 2020 fiscal year on October 1st ran into budget realities since several bills were threatened with “poison pill” riders, including abortion, border wall funding, immigration, farmer bailouts, and other controversial amendments.

However, given the late timeframe on T-HUD and other bills, a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government funded past September 30 is more likely. The House of Representatives today passed HR 4378, a CR to keep the government funded until November 21st. The Senate is expected to take up the CR next week.

Whether or not the Senate T-HUD bill receives floor consideration before the full Senate, the stage is set for the Senate bill to go into conference with the earlier House-passed T-HUD appropriations bill, HR 3055, in order to work out differences between the two funding measures, and before final passage of 2020 appropriations for HUD.

CLPHA’s updated funding chart accompanies this article, and we will shortly provide a more detailed analysis of the Senate funding bill to CLPHA members, along with selected passages and rationale of policy directives and recommendations from the Committee Report.

For further information, contact CLPHA’s Legislative Director Gerard Holder at [email protected].