The 118th Congress will most likely be a divided Congress with Democrats retaining the Senate and Republicans taking over the House of Representatives. Currently, the Democrats hold 51 seats in the Senate, compared to Republicans’ 49 seats with the final Georgia seat headed to a December 6 runoff between incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) and Herschel Walker (R).
As of the time of drafting, Republicans won 217 seats in the House, putting them just one seat away from the 218 required for a majority. Fourteen House seats still remain uncalled and Democrats would need to win every one of them to retain their majority.
Democratic control of the Senate relieves pressure to approve nominations in the lame duck session, but a divided Congress introduces others – namely to increase the debt limit before Republicans take control of the House even though Treasury has yet to announce when the debt limit will be reached.
Congress’s lame-duck to-do list includes FY 2023 appropriations past when the current continuing resolution runs out on December 16, a year-end tax extenders bill, the debt ceiling, Ukraine aid, recession relief and addressing the looming Medicare cuts.
The affordable housing community is well positioned going into the lame duck, but more advocacy will be needed to ensure our provisions are included in the year-end bills. The ACTION Campaign, of which NH&RA is a steering committee member, is circulating a sign-on letter to urge legislators to include the housing credit in tax extenders. Existing ACTION members will automatically be added to the list of signatories; if you wish to opt-out of signing this letter, please email actioncampaign@enterprisecommunity.org by noon ET on November 18. Unsure if you are an ACTION member? Check the membership page! Non-ACTION members or new members can use this link to sign the letter.
