Yesterday the House of Representatives voted to approve federal funding for the remainder of FY 2020, which will provide $738 billion to the military and $632 billion to non-defense agencies. The Senate is expected to pass the measures before the current continuing resolution expires on December 20, and the White House has indicated President Trump will sign them into law.
The two spending packages (one for national security spending and one for domestic spending) largely mirror the funding levels set out by the Senate earlier this year. The spending package increases funding for tenant-based rental assistance, public housing capital fund, homeless assistance grants, and project-based rental assistance. Choice Neighborhoods, Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDs, Community Development Block Grants, HOME Investment Partnerships, Section 811 Housing for Persons with Disabilities, and Section 202 Housing for the Elderly also received increased funding above FY19 levels. For more details, see the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s updated budget chart. The spending package also includes $25 million for a mobility housing voucher demonstration to help families with young children move to areas of opportunity.
Late Monday night, congressional and White House negotiators agreed on a final end-of-year tax package that will advance through Congress. Unfortunately, no provisions from the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act (AHCIA) were included in the final tax package. Earlier that day, a larger tax package had included the four percent LIHTC minimum rate, but in the final hours, the larger tax package fell apart and negotiators settled on a “skinny” tax package composed mostly of short-term extenders and a few additional items. The tax package does include an additional $1 billion LIHTC allocation for California as part of disaster tax relief as well as extension of New Markets Tax Credit through 2020 at $5 billion.
