Congress reaches $1 trillion appropriations deal for Fiscal Year 2017
On April 30, 2017, with just days to go before temporary federal funding expired, Congress reached a $1 trillion deal on a final spending package for Fiscal Year 2017. Called an “omnibus bill,” the 11 regular spending bills were passed in conjunction with additional appropriations for national defense, border security, disaster and famine relief, and coal miners health benefits to fund the federal government through the end of FY17 (September 30, 2017). After weeks of negotiations, the bipartisan omnibus passed the House by a vote of 309-118 and the Senate by 79-18, and it was signed into law by the President today.
Overall, the funding for affordable housing programs in FY 2017 is positive. Now, our attention must go directly to the next fiscal year and protecting funding for Fiscal Year 2018, which begins October 1, 2017. To read our recent NAHMAnalysis on the FY17 appropriations package, please click
here.
Appropriations for HUD’s Affordable Housing Programs (program subsets in italics)
| HUD Programs (Figures in million) |
FY 2017
|
FY 2016 Enacted |
| Tenant-Based Rental Assistance |
$20,292 |
$19,628 |
| Contract Renewals |
18,355 |
17,682 |
| Project-Based Rental Assistance |
$10,816 |
$10,622 |
| Contract Renewals |
10,416 |
10,407 |
| Contract Administrators |
235 |
215 |
| Housing for the Elderly (Sec. 202) |
$502 |
$432 |
| Service Coordinators |
75 |
77 |
| Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities (Sec. 811) |
$146 |
$150 |
| Community Development Grant |
$3,000 |
$3,000 |
| HOME |
$950 |
$950 |
Appropriations for USDA Rural Housing Program
| Rural Development Housing Programs ($ in millions) |
FY 2017 |
FY 2016 Enacted |
| Section 521 Rental Assistance |
$1,405 |
$1,389 |
| Section 515 |
$35 |
$28.398 |
| Multifamily Revitalization |
$41 |
$37 |
| Preservation Demonstration |
$22 |
$22 |
| Rural Housing Vouchers |
$19 |
$15 |
| Section 538 Loan Level |
$230 |
$150 |
Executive Order establishes “Rural Prosperity” Task Force
On April 25, 2017, the President signed an Executive Order titled “Promoting Agriculture and Rural Prosperity in America.” The Order establishes a task force headed by USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue and comprised of leadership from 21 federal agencies. The goal of the task force is to “identify legislative, regulatory, and policy changes to promote in rural America agriculture, economic development, job growth, infrastructure improvements, technological innovation, energy security, and quality of life.”
Although an administrative representative indicated during a briefing that the Order applies to economic stability factors such as housing and rural development, HUD is not represented among the 21 agencies participating in the task force. To read the Executive Order, click
here.
Bills introduced to incentive housing for homeless vets and protect mortgage disclosure privacy
Last week, Representative Steve Stivers (R-OH) reintroduced bipartisan legislation to incentivize grantees under the Continuum of Care program to rehouse all former members of the military. Titled “Housing our Military Servicemembers (HOMeS) Act of 2017,”
H.R. 2222 amends the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act to add “former servicemembers” as a subpopulation eligible for rehousing incentive payments through HUD’s homeless assistance statutes. The bill also directs HUD to identify and report to Congress on a strategy to bridge gaps in homelessness assistance offered by the VA. To read a press release about the bill, please click
here.
Separately, Representative Randy Hultgren (R-IL) introduced the Homeowner Information Privacy Protection Act (
H.R. 2204), which would request a study regarding the privacy of information collected under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975.
