Senators Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Create Affordable Housing Task Force
On July 18, nine U.S. Senators introduced legislation (
S.3231)called the Task Force on the Affordable Housing Crisis Act, which would create a bipartisan task force on affordable housing. The Senators include Sens. Todd Young, R-Ind.; Maria Cantwell, D-Wash; Angus King, I-Maine; Dean Heller, R-Nev.; Tim Kaine, D-Va.; Doug Jones, D-Ala.; Cory Gardner, R-Colo.; Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; and Chris Coons, D-Del.
According to a
fact sheet from Sen. Young’s
press release, the bill would establish a bipartisan Task Force to evaluate and quantify the impact of affordable housing on other government programs and provide recommendations to Congress on how to use affordable housing to improve the effectiveness of other Federal programs and improve life outcomes.
Specifically, the Task Force would:
- Evaluate and quantify the impact that a lack of affordable housing has on other areas of life and life outcomes for individuals living in the United States, including education, employment, income level, health, nutrition, access to transportation, and poverty level in the neighborhood in which individuals live, regional economic growth, and neighborhood and rural community stability and revitalization.
- Evaluate and quantify the costs incurred by other Federal, State, and local programs due to a lack of affordable housing.
- Make recommendations to Congress on how to use affordable housing to improve the effectiveness of other Federal programs and improve life outcomes for individuals living in the United States.
NAHMA will keep members up to date on the bill.
HUD and Rural Funding Comes up for Debate in Senate
Next week, the U.S. Senate will consider a four-bill spending package, which includes funding for HUD and USDA. The Senate will begin final debate on a House-passed spending package, H.R. 6147, which includes the FY19 Financial Services and Interior-Environment appropriation bills. However, the Senate will also add two more bills: Transportation-HUD, S. 3023 and Agriculture-FDA, S. 2976. The House of Representatives has not passed their Agriculture and Transportation bills; they would need to pass them before setting up a conference committee with the Senate to develop a final bill.
NAHMA strongly supports moving the THUD and Agriculture bills forward in a mini-package, but our expectations are that a stopgap funding bill (Continuing Resolution) may be needed until after the mid-term elections in November.
