Senate Continues Negotiations on Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal
With the U.S. Senate returning from the two-week July 4th recess and scheduled to stay in session through the first week of August, negotiations for a bipartisan infrastructure deal are expected to continue. The bipartisan $1.2-trillion infrastructure includes $579 billion in new spending in areas such as transportation, water infrastructure and broadband. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) wants to bring up both the bipartisan proposal, if it holds together, and a budget resolution that will unlock a separate process for the multi-trillion infrastructure bill before the August recess.
Under this proposed schedule, the bipartisan infrastructure deal could come to the Senate floor in less than two weeks. However, it’s worth noting, the current bipartisan infrastructure framework has no housing provisions included, and it has stalled previously on disagreements on how its cost would be offset. The current framework proposes to pay for the spending in several ways, including through repurposing unspent COVID-19 relief funds and increasing enforcement of tax laws. The proposal calls for giving the IRS an additional $40 billion in order to raise $100 billion in net revenue, which Republicans oppose. Likewise, Democrats have raised concerns about repurposing unspent coronavirus relief funds in order to pay for the infrastructure proposal. Republicans have also warned against it being linked to the separate budget package that Democrats are going to try to pass using reconciliation and that will encompass broad chunks of President Biden’s jobs and families plans.
Majority Leader Schumer has stated he will move both the budget resolution and the bipartisan deal during the upcoming work period, possibly as soon as July 19, but hasn’t announced the sequencing of which bill will come first. Instead, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has been working on a budget resolution that will set up and detail the instructions, laying out the rules for the reconciliation process. As part of that budget resolution, congressional committees will need to agree to a top-line figure, something they hope to have worked out by the time the Senate returns next week. So far, it is unclear how much the reconciliation package will cost, as Chairman Sanders has suggested it could be up to $6 trillion. Meanwhile, Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) has signaled that he is unwilling to go above $2 trillion.
Bipartisan Bill Would Establish Affordable Housing Task Force
A group of five bipartisan Senators – Todd Young (R-IN), Angus King (I-ME), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), John Kennedy (R-LA), and Jon Tester (D-MT) – have recently reintroduced the Task Force on the Impact of the Affordable Housing Crisis Act (S.2190). The bill, if enacted into law, would seek to better understand and respond to America’s housing affordability crisis by creating a bipartisan housing task force. The task force would evaluate and quantify the impact of housing costs on other government programs, and provide recommendations to Congress on how to increase affordable housing options in order to improve life outcomes. Specifically, the bill 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. It would also determine the costs incurred by other Federal, State, and local programs due to a lack of affordable housing and would provide 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. There would be 18 members of the Task Force with two co-chairs: one co-chair appointed by the Majority Leader of the Senate and the Speaker of the House and one co-chair appointed by the Minority Leader of the Senate and the Minority Leader of the House. Members would also include academic researchers, experts in a field or policy area related to affordable housing, or individuals who have experience with government programs related to the purpose of the task force. S.2190 has been referred to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs for further consideration.
To view the full bill text of the Task Force on the Impact of the Affordable Housing Crisis Act, click here.
Senate Bill Introduced to Increase Affordable Housing Construction, Access and Affordability
Senator Jeff Merkely (D-OR) recently reintroduced the Affordable Housing Opportunities Made Equitable Act (Affordable HOME Act). Seeking to lower the cost of housing, the bill would increase the resources for the construction of affordable housing while also increasing access to housing and support services for those most in need. Specifically, the bill would provide $1 billion (disbursed in $100 million increments over 10 years) for the construction of multifamily rental housing projects financed with a loan under Section 515 and with rental assistance provided under Section 521 for low-income families in rural areas. The bill would also provide $45 billion for the construction and preservation of affordable housing through the National Housing Trust Fund. To allow for the construction of additional public housing units, the bill would also seek to repeal the Faircloth Amendment. The bill would provide the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Program $1 billion to increase access to permanent supportive housing for those experiencing homelessness (over a ten-year period). The bill would also seek to address racially discriminatory federal housing policies and would allow for emergency housing programs to be more straightforward, fast-acting, and with the ability to quickly deploy federal housing resources in large scale disasters, like wildfires or the current pandemic.
To view the full bill text of the Affordable Housing Opportunities Made Equitable Act, click here. The press release on the bill’s introduction is available here and a summary of the bill can be found here.