Senate Avoids Government Shutdown
On Thursday, The Senate passed H.R. 6617, the Further Additional Extending Government Funding Act, extending the existing continuing resolution that funds government agencies through March 11. President Biden is expected to sign the legislation today. With the passage of the short-term funding bill, Congress has avoided a government shutdown down while giving lawmakers more time to pass a full-year funding bill. Members of Congress are still working on a larger appropriations bill that would fund the government through the rest of the 2022 fiscal year, which ends on September 30. The House of Representatives passed an omnibus appropriations bill in July 2021, and the Senate Appropriations Committee released text for nine of 12 FY 2022 appropriations bills in October 2021, including the Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development (THUD) appropriations bill. Both the House-passed omnibus and the Senate THUD appropriations bill includes critical increase in affordable housing programs, “I am pleased that Congress has passed a continuing resolution through March 11, ensuring that the government will remain open as we continue our bipartisan, bicameral negotiations on FY22 bills. We are making progress under our omnibus framework, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. This will provide us additional time to complete our work. Chairman Leahy, Chair DeLauro, Ranking Member Granger, and I remain steadfast in our commitment to get the job done and fund the government through the end of this fiscal year,” said Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman Richard Shelby (R-AL). House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patrick Leahy (D-VT) also announced on February 9 that bipartisan, bicameral negotiators had agreed to a framework to complete the fiscal year FY 22 appropriations process and that the framework would allow all 12 appropriations subcommittees to begin finalizing an FY 2022 omnibus spending bill.
Bill Introduced to Fund Supportive Services for Residents of Affordable Housing
Representative Pete Aguilar (D-CA) recently introduced H.R. 6602, the Affordable Housing Resident Services Act, legislation that secures funding for affordable housing properties to provide supportive services for their residents. The legislation creates a five-year grant program under the HUD to provide yearly funding to affordable housing property owners for resident supportive services. These services include after-school programs, education opportunities for youth and adult residents, mental health and substance abuse treatment, elderly care, financial literacy training and more. Specifically, the bill would allow HHS to transfer up to $300 million a year of new funding for the Social Services Block Grant and Community Services Block Grant to HUD. Under the bill, HUD would then distribute the up to $300 million of SSBG/CSBG funding as grants to a variety of HUD and non-HUD housing providers for the provision of a long list of services to residents. “The COVID-19 pandemic put a spotlight on the lack of supportive services for low-income families in affordable housing. While the federal government continues to invest in building housing for low-income families and seniors, there are currently very few dedicated funding sources for supportive services for these residents. My legislation closes that gap while giving families more of the tools they need to get ahead,” said Rep. Aguilar during introduction of the bill. H.R. 6602 has been referred to the House Committee on Financial Services, and in addition to the Committees on Education and Labor, and Ways and Means. NAHMA will continue to monitor this legislation closely.
To view the bill text of the Affordable Housing Resident Services Act, click here.