House to move HUD, USDA funding bills next week
The House of Representatives is scheduled to consider “minibus” legislation next week, a four-bill spending package that includes funding for HUD and USDA for Fiscal Year 2020. The funding levels reject the President’s requested cuts and program eliminations and include a number of policy amendments brought by legislators this week.
Meanwhile, the Senate and White House are negotiating on a broader budget deal before the Senate drafts its funding bills, which will likely endorse lower funding levels than those supported in the House. NAHMA supports higher funding levels and urges Congress to reach a full-year agreement as soon as possible.
HUD Assistant Secretaries confirmed by Senate
This week, the Senate approved the nominations of two HUD leadership positions, including Hunter Kurtz as Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing (PIH) and Seth Appleton as Assistant Secretary of Policy Development and Research (PD&R). Kurtz most recently served as the principal deputy assistant secretary for public and Indian housing, while Appleton recently served as HUD’s associate deputy secretary, and before that, he served as acting assistant secretary for congressional and intergovernmental relations.
NAHMA announces Advocacy Challenge with focus on August Recess
This week, NAHMA announced the new “AHMA Advocacy Challenge,” which aims to increase NAHMA member participation in advocacy across the country. The policy platform for the challenge includes urging congressional support for robust, full-year funding bills for affordable housing programs, and increasing co-sponsorship on a key bill to strengthen the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program (LIHTC).
During the summer and early Fall, when many lawmakers are in their home districts for the August Congressional Recess, NAHMA members can earn points for hosting site visits with legislators, calling or emailing their Representatives in response to a NAHMA grassroots alert, or planning a resident letter-writing campaign, among other categories.
The AHMA with the most points will win a prize, and individual participants will be recognized during the NAHMA October Meeting in Washington, D.C. For more information about the challenge, click here, and for NAHMA’s advocacy toolkit, please click here.