Congress returns for lame duck session
Lawmakers returned to Washington this week to begin the lame duck session ahead of the new Congress in January. Key priorities for lawmakers during the remaining weeks in session include appropriations negotiations for fiscal year 2019 and possible tax legislation.
Fiscal Year 2019 Funding
HUD, USDA, and several other federal agencies are currently operating under fiscal year 2018 funding levels through December 7, 2018. Because Congress is on recess again next week for the Thanksgiving holiday, lawmakers have just a couple weeks to either enact the full-year FY19 spending package that has been reconciled between the House and Senate, or enact another short-term spending bill to keep the government operating until a full-year compromise can be reached with the Administration.
President Trump met with Senate leadership yesterday to discuss the terms of a funding deal, but no immediate promises were made. The outstanding appropriations bills comprise about a quarter of the government’s discretionary spending, including housing and community development programs.
Tax Legislation
This week, outgoing House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) released a set of tax priorities he would like to see enacted during the lame duck session. Because any tax legislation would likely need bipartisan support to be enacted, champions of the Housing Credit could leverage the opportunity to insert critical parts of the Curbelo-Neal/Cantwell-Hatch “Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act,” such as the permanent authorization of the 4% credit. Chairman Brady will relinquish the Committee gavel in January when Democrats regain control of the House.
The future of the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act, which NAHMA strongly supports, is in flux as the Congressional landscape shifts in January: The two lead Republican sponsors of the House and Senate companion bills – Senator Hatch (UT), who is retiring, and Congressman Curbelo (FL), who failed to win his reelection campaign – will need to be replaced come January.
Prominent Senators introduce bill to expand Fair Housing Act
This week, Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) proposed legislation to expand protections under the Fair Housing Act to include source of income and veteran status. The legislation, titled the “Fair Housing Improvement Act of 2018” (S.3612) would prohibit the two additional types of discrimination alongside the current prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of race or color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability. Because the current congressional session ends in early January, the bill will need to be reintroduced in the 116th Congress.