Congress considers a continuing resolution extension through late FY2017
This week, the U.S. House of Representatives met and agreed to develop a funding bill that would last until May 2017 to give the U.S. Senate time to conduct the confirmation process for President-elect Trump’s cabinet political appointees. Congress is set to vote on an extension to the current continuing resolution (CR) by the end of next week, when the current CR expires on December 9.
It is unclear if a majority of House and Senate members would agree to a long-term CR. Both domestic and defense spending could face funding cuts unless addressed through ‘anomalies’ to the CR or through stand-alone bills, such as the defense spending bill currently on its way to the Senate after passing through the House today.
The Obama Administration objected to the long-term stopgap measure considered by Congressional leadership. “The election is over, so Republicans should set aside politics and focus on the best interests of the country,” said White House press secretary Josh Earnest. “And passing a CR that extends through May would be inconsistent with that kind of approach.”
Top Appropriation Committee leaders are warning that a third CR would likely be needed to fund the government through the rest of the fiscal year. Representative Tom Cole (R-OK), House Appropriations Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee Chairman, stated “I think it’s a bad decision and I think at the end of the day we’ll live to regret it….We should have finished up [government funding], honestly, this year. We could have….Now we are cramming a lot into next year and we’re already delaying it.”
Once the bill text is released, NAHMA will analyze the impacts on rental assistance programs. We will follow-up with HUD and USDA-RD (rural development) to obtain clarity on how the new CR will affect funding contracts.
HUD Transition Team Announced
There still has not been an official announcement regarding Dr. Ben Carson and his acceptance of the Secretary of HUD position. However, this week President-elect Trump announced two members of the HUD transition team: Jimmy Kemp, the son of former HUD Secretary Jack Kemp, and Shawn Krause, the Executive Vice President of Government Advocacy for Quicken Loans Inc.
Transition teams are responsible for gathering information about each government agency, including policy initiatives and personnel, to facilitate a smooth transition of power when the new administration takes office in late January. In the next few weeks, NAHMA will be reaching out to transition team members and key agency appointees to educate and advocate the importance of affordable housing programs.