House Chooses Affordable Housing Committee Chairs and Ranking Members
This week, the House began its legislative business after last week’s four-day Speaker election spectacle, which ended with Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) being named Speaker of the House, following 15 rounds of voting. The Republican Steering Committee met this week to finalize committee chairs and assignments for 118th Congress, including for the relevant committees overseeing affordable housing issues: the Committee on Appropriations, the House Financial Service Committee and the Committee on Ways and Means.
The House Financial Services Committee, which provides oversight of HUD affordable housing program policy issues, is now chaired by Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC). He served as the Committee’s ranking member in the previous Congress. The former chairwoman of the Committee, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), is the ranking member. The Ways and Means Committee oversees all issues related to taxation, including the Housing Credit is now chaired Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), replacing former Congressman Keven Brady (R-TX), who retired from the House. Smith, who won a contested race for the chairmanship, was a cosponsor of the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act (AHCIA) in the last Congress, which NAHMA continues to support. Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA) chaired the committee in the previous Congress and continues to be a strong LIHTC supporter. The Appropriations Committee, which controls spending for HUD and USDA affordable housing programs, is chaired by Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX), who previously served as the Committee’s ranking member. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), who previously served as the chairwoman of the committee, is now the ranking member. Subcommittee membership have yet to be announced, so it’s still unclear which Appropriations Committee members will serve on the THUD and Agriculture subcommittees. NAHMA will be publishing an analysis on the relevant committees and subcommittees soon.
Biden Administration Releases Blueprint to Decarbonize America’s Transportation Sector
The White House yesterday released the National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization, developed by the Departments of Energy, Transportation, HUD, and the Environmental Protection Agency. The Blueprint is a landmark strategy for cutting all greenhouse emissions from the transportation sector by 2050. It exemplifies the Biden Administration’s whole-of-government approach to addressing the climate crisis and meeting President Biden’s goals of securing a 100% clean electrical grid by 2035 and reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The Blueprint builds on President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, which included large investments for a safer and more sustainable transportation system.
The transportation sector—which includes all modes of travel through land, air, and sea to move people and goods—accounts for a third of all domestic greenhouse gas emissions, negatively affecting the health and wellbeing of millions of Americans, particularly those in disadvantaged communities. Transportation costs are the second largest annual household expense in the U.S. and for the poorest Americans, the financial burden of transportation is disproportionately and unsustainably high. A well-planned transition to a decarbonized transportation system can address these and other inequities and provide equitable, affordable, and accessible options for moving people and goods. Further developing and deploying clean-energy technologies such as electric vehicles and hydrogen and sustainable fuels, while also building out the supporting infrastructure for clean transportation that will create high-salaried jobs across all segments of the transportation sector and strengthening America’s energy independence.
Jointly announced by Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge, and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael S. Regan, the Blueprint is the first milestone deliverable of the memorandum of understanding signed by the agencies in September of last year. The Blueprint will be followed by more detailed decarbonization action plans, to be developed and implemented by these agencies in cooperation with governments at the State, local, and Tribal level, philanthropic organizations, the private sector, and global partners.
To view the HUD press release, click here. To view the Joint Strategy to Transform Transportation factsheet, click here.