Senate Approves $3.5 Trillion Budget Resolution
This week, the Senate approved a budget resolution that will allow Democrats to pass a $3.5 trillion spending plan without Republican support later this year. The Senate resolution provided Congressional committees with instructions on spending and revenue topline figures in order to draft legislative changes and program funding levels in a final bill. The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee received $332 billion with instructions to create and preserve affordable housing by making large investments in programs like the Housing Trust Fund, HOME, the Capital Magnet Fund, and rural housing. The budget resolution also specifies funding for improving housing affordability and equity by providing down payment assistance, rental assistance, and other homeownership initiatives. Additionally, it recognizes the need to provide community investment, development, and revitalization through initiatives like Community Land Trusts, investments in Community Development Block Grants, zoning, land use, and transit improvements to create healthy and sustainable housing. The budget resolution also included instructions for capital investments in public housing and sustainability efforts. The Senate Banking Committee and their counterpart, the House Financial Services Committee, will start drafting legislation to determine how to invest their allocations in the various housing programs.
The $332 billion allocation for housing included in the budget resolution may allow for increased housing investments in line with or above the $318 billion proposed for housing programs by President Biden in his American Jobs Plan. President Biden’s $318 billion housing proposal included providing $105 billion in housing-related tax provisions and $213 billion in direct investments. The draft legislation my also include provisions from the Housing is Infrastructure Act, especially those that are similar to the American Jobs Plan. This includes substantial investments in the preservation, construction and rehabilitation of affordable housing by providing $200 billion for rental assistance, $75 billion to repair and preserve public housing, $150 billion for Housing Choice Vouchers, $35 billion for the Home Investment Partnership Program, $5 billion for new USDA financed rural housing and $500 million to rehabilitate existing rural housing. The final draft could also include provisions of the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act to enhance LIHTC and expand the financing and construction of new housing, including an increase in the annual 9 percent LIHTC allocation amount and a temporary reduction in the 50 percent test for bond-financed housing to 25 percent. In response to the Senate passing their budget resolution, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) announced this week that the Members of the House will return on August 23rd to consider the Senate budget resolution. Moving forward, Democrats in the House and Senate will need to unify their entire caucus to pass the spending bill on their own, with votes expected in both chambers as soon as mid-September.
Senator Toomey Seeks to Overturn CDC Eviction Moratorium
The Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, Pat Toomey (R-PA), along with Senators Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Richard Burr (R-NC), introduced a resolution a joint resolution that would enable Congress to repeal the eviction moratorium under the Congressional Review Act (CRA). The CRA allows Congress to repeal regulations recently issued by federal agencies with just a simple majority in both chambers. It also would ban the agency that issued it from writing similar regulations in the future, in this case, the CDC. Senator Toomey also sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) requesting that it decide as quickly as possible whether the CDC’s latest eviction moratorium constitutes a rule for purposes of the CRA. In his letter, Senator Toomey cited the significant impact the CDC’s eviction moratorium is having on the legal and property rights of housing providers and renters and asked that GAO to decide no later than August 16, 2021. With the introduction of the joint resolution, Senator Toomey made the following statements:
“As I said when the previous administration created it, an eviction moratorium lacks both a legal and an economic justification. Even President Biden admitted last week that the ‘bulk of constitutional scholars’ agree ‘it’s not likely to pass constitutional muster.’ I hope my colleagues will join me in overturning this illegal action. Though the CDC did not pursue notice and comment rulemaking, the eviction moratorium appears to be generally applicable, prospective in nature, and designed to interpret law. For these reasons, I respectfully request that GAO evaluate whether the eviction moratorium is a ‘rule’ under the CRA.”
Additionally, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich denied a request this afternoon from various housing provider associations that she block the current CDC eviction moratorium. Judge Friedrich stated that her decision was based on an existing order by an appellate court, from the previous round of litigation, allowing the moratorium to continue. In her decision, Judge Friedrich wrote that the Supreme Court did not issue a controlling opinion in this case, and circuit precedent provides that the votes of dissenting Justices may not be combined with that of a concurring Justice to create binding law–meaning the challengers would need to turn to the appellate court to get the eviction moratorium blocked. However, she also indicated that the moratorium faces an uncertain legal future.
To view the text of Senators Toomey, Marshall and Burr’s joint resolution, click here.
To view Senator Toomey’s full letter to the GAO, click here.
To view Judge Friedrich’s Opinion and Order, click here.