Congress

On Tuesday, the Senate advanced a spending FY 2020 funding package that includes funding for Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science, Interior-Environment and Transportation-HUD. The full Senate is expected to vote on the package this week or early next week.

Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) introduced the Historic Tax Credit (HTC) Growth & Opportunity Act (S. 2615). The bill would eliminate the HTC basis adjustment requirement, increase the HTC from 20 percent to 30 percent for properties with rehabilitation expenses of less than $3.75 million (capped at $750,000), make it easier to meet the substantial rehabilitation test and create greater flexibility for nonprofits to partner with developers.

The House Committee on Appropriations’ Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies will hold an oversight hearing on HUD’s Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program on October 17 at 2 pm EDT. The hearing will feature HUD’s Irv Dennis, chief financial officer, Jeremy Kirkland, counsel to the inspector general, and David […]

2020 Democratic Presidential hopeful, Senator Michael Bennet (CO) released a plan to Tackle America’s Housing Affordability Crisis. The three tenants of his plan are Build More Affordable Housing Near Good Jobs, Help Middle-Class and Working Families Afford A Home and Reform Federal Housing Tax Incentives. Sen. Bennet calls for expanding the LIHTC by 50 percent, […]

The House Financial Services Committee (HFSC) released its October hearing schedule. On October 22 at 10:00 am EDT the full Committee will convene for a hearing entitled, “The End of Affordable Housing? A Review of the Trump Administration’s Plans to Change Housing Finance in America.” On October 29 at 10:00 am EDT the Subcommittee on […]

Last week HUD submitted its report on Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Partnership Challenges and Opportunities at the Local, State, and Federal Level to the House and Senate Appropriations committees. The report identifies the following challenges and opportunities to building partnerships with local organizations.

Representative Ed Case (D-HI) introduced the Protecting Local Authority and Neighborhoods Act (H.R. 4232), which would hold tech platforms like Airbnb and HomeAway responsible for illegal short-term rentals. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) prevents tech companies from being held legally responsible for most content posted by third parties. State and local governments have passed legislation banning short-term rentals that can deplete the stock of affordable housing, but tech rental platforms are using Section 230 of the CDA to sue or delay the laws from being implemented.

Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Tina Smith (D-MN) introduced the Rural Housing Preservation Act of 2019 (S. 2567). The bill would expand U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development (RD) rental assistance programs, permanently authorize the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Multifamily Housing Preservation and Revitalization program, and direct RD to better align its policies […]

It’s been a busy week for the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). During the American Credit Union Mortgage Association’s Annual Conference, Director Mark Calabria shared his concerns about volume-based pricing discounts on Guarantee Fees (G-Fees). FHFA issued a confidential administrative directive to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac restricting competition on G-Fees

FHFA sent a letter to the 11 Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBanks) instructing them that, as of December 31, 2019, they should stop purchasing investments in assets tied to London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) with a contractual maturity beyond December 31, 2021.

FHFA announced modified Preferred Stock Purchase agreements with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that allow the GSEs to retain capitals of up to $25 billion and $20 billion, respectively. The move ends the capital sweep on earnings above $3 billion that was put into place in 2008 when the GSEs entered conservatorship.

Finally, FHFA announced an agreement with Simone Grimes who accused former director Melvin Watt of sexual harassment.

Last week the Senate passed, and President Trump signed into law, a continuing resolution (CR) that funds the government through November 21, 2019, averting a government shutdown as Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 comes to a close. The Senate passed the measure (H.R. 4378) with a 81-16 vote.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) released a draft housing bill, A Just Society: A Place to Prosper Act of 2019. The bill calls for national rent control, right to counsel in tenant eviction proceedings, amending the Fair Housing Act of 1968 to bar source-of-income discrimination, withholding highway funds for jurisdictions not supporting equitable growth and eliminating the ability of states and Public Housing Authorities to add work requirements to housing assistance.

Last week the House passed a continuing resolution (CR) that would fund the government through November 21, 2019, averting a government shutdown as Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 comes to a close. The measure (H.R. 4378) passed the House with a veto-proof majority vote of 301-123. The Senate is expected to pass the measure and the President is expected to sign the bill before the end of the fiscal year.