Congress and White House spar over fiscal year 2018 budget request
On Tuesday, President Trump sent Congress its budget request for fiscal year 2018. As outlined in the President’s “skinny budget” released earlier in the year, the Administration seeks to cut current budget levels for HUD and USDA by 13% and 21%, respectively.
The budget request, titled “A New Foundation for American Greatness,” uses a mixture of deep spending cuts and optimistic growth projections to achieve a balanced budget over the next decade. An increase in defense and security spending is offset by program eliminations, funding decreases for domestic programs such as health, nutrition, rural development, and affordable housing programs.
Under the budget request, funding for the Project-Based Rental Assistance (PBRA), Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program, and Section 811 Housing for Persons with Disabilities would see a significant reduction. The Housing Trust Fund, HOME, and Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) programs would be eliminated, along with USDA-RD’s Section 515 Rental Housing Direct Loans and RD’s Preservation Demonstration. Additionally, the budget proposes a number of rent reform proposals, including eliminating the utility allowance, establishing a $50 minimum rent in certain programs, and increasing the tenant contribution above 30% to 35% of income.
Lawmakers across the aisle responded to the budget proposal with significant pushback, and both the
Senate and the
House Budget Committees held hearings this week with Budget Director Mick Mulvaney.
In his opening statement, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY) said, “I appreciate that the President and Director Mulvaney recognize the challenging financial situation the United States is in by attempting to do the first balanced budget submitted by a president in years.” He and his Republican colleagues went on to suggest reforms to mandatory spending for entitlement programs such as social security and Medicaid.
Senator Merkley (D-OR), who also serves on the Appropriations Subcommittee for Agriculture, questioned Director Mulvaney on targeted cuts to programs serving rural America: “This budget cuts rural business loans, rural development, rural transportation, rural water, and essential service to rural airports, as well as contract tower support, rural clinics, rural hospitals, rural rental housing, rural agriculture…and veteran’s vouchers. Why does the President have it in for rural America?….Let’s turn to housing. We have 4,000 housing vouchers eliminated in Oregon. In Oregon, the housing vouchers play an incredibly important role to help address a state of emergency in housing. Why make a housing emergency worse?”
In response, Director Mulvaney referenced the Administration’s priority to shift responsibility for programs to the states to increase efficiencies and reduce federal spending. Shortly after the hearing, NAHMA met with Senator Merkley’s staff and was pleased to learn they would be actively opposing the funding cuts to USDA rural housing programs and HUD programs.
In addition to the hearings with Director Mulvaney, USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue
testified in front of the House Appropriations Committee on how the budget would affect USDA programs. This hearing largely focused on the impact of cuts to the agriculture industry and food assistance programs.
Congress is on Memorial Day recess until June 5
th. When lawmakers return, HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson is expected to testify on HUD’s FY18 budget request in early June(tentatively scheduled for June 8). In the coming weeks, NAHMA will be meeting with staffs at HUD, USDA-RD, and key lawmakers and congressional committees to oppose the funding cuts outlined in the Administration’s FY18 budget request. In addition, we are working with our industry partners to develop a comprehensive advocacy strategy to provide our members the necessary advocacy tools, ahead of the critical August recess period. NAHMA hopes to share additional details very soon and will keep members updated on budget hearings and meetings.
To read our recent NAHMAnalysis of the FY18 budget, please click
here. We welcome feedback or concerns from members on the potential impact of these funding cuts.
