Congress

Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee Ranking Member Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and 25 co-sponsors introduced the Emergency Rental Assistance and Rental Market Stabilization Act, which would provide $100 billion in emergency rental assistance.

The ACTION Campaign, of which NH&RA is a steering committee member, sent a letter to congressional leadership calling for our Housing Credit priorities. The letter calls for enacting a minimum four percent LIHTC rate and lowering the 50 percent test for bond financed transactions.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced that the Senate will be in session on May 4. The House announced it would return from recess only to reverse course after conflicting advice from the Capitol physician and an outcry from members. In the next Coronavirus relief package, Leader McConnell will push for liability protections for […]

Yesterday the Senate passed by voice vote the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act (H.R. 266), which appropriates an additional $321 billion to the Payment Protection Program, $60 billion for loans and grants for economic disaster assistance, $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion for testing. The House is expected to pass the bill on Thursday by allowing members to vote by proxy, in which a member could designate a colleague to vote on their behalf.

Congressman Denver Riggleman (R-VA) introduced The Opportunity Zone Extension Act (H.R. 6513) that would extend the Opportunity Zone (OZ) tax incentive from 2026 to 2030, giving more time and benefits for investors.

HUD released the median family incomes and income limits for Fiscal Year (FY) 2020. Median incomes are used as the basis for income limits in several HUD programs, including the Public Housing, Section 8 Housing Choice and Project-Based Voucher, Section 202 housing for the elderly and Section 811 housing for persons with disabilities programs.

The Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting released a statement a day after the comment period closed on OCC and FDIC’s joint CRA proposed rule, stated the two U.S. banking regulators will consider the submitted comments in working toward issuing a final rule during the first half of this year.

The $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), H.R. 748, was passed by the House by a voice vote and signed by President Trump on March 27. The House and Senate are both out until April 20, but work has already begun on drafting a fourth Coronavirus aid package. The package is likely to include funding for health systems, frontline healthcare workers, infrastructure, state and local governments and rebates to families and individuals.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have reportedly reached an agreement on nearly $2 trillion emergency relief package in response to the coronavirus pandemic, which contains:

The following groups have submitted legislative and/or regulatory asks. Please email Kaitlyn Snyder to add information. 

The ACTION Campaign, of which NH&RA is a member, sent this letter to Congress with housing related requests to include in the COVID-19 pandemic response legislation. The statutory requests include:

Immediate one-year extension for three key deadlines:
10 percent test deadlines
Placed in service deadlines
Rehabilitation expenditure deadlines
Enact a minimum four percent LIHTC rate

The majority of the House of Representatives has cosponsored the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act, H.R.3077, with a total of 221 members signed on to the bipartisan legislation.