The Campaign for Housing and Community Development Funding (CHCDF) and other national housing and transportation organizations are circulating an organizational sign-on letter to House and Senate appropriators that calls for an increase in the FY15 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) 302(b) subcommittee allocation. CHCDF is a coalition of national organizations concerned about funding for affordable housing and community development programs that is staffed by NLIHC.

In 2013, more than 2,400 organizations signed a similar letter to appropriators requesting an increase to the FY14 THUD subcommittee allocation. NLIHC urges organizations to sign and to share the FY15 letter with their networks by the sign-on deadline of March 12.

Congressional appropriations work begins with the House and Senate Appropriations Committees dividing the total spending amount for the fiscal year among the 12 appropriations subcommittees. This portioning results in what is referred to as 302(b) allocations.

The letters states that “since FY 2010, the combination of budget cuts and sequestration have reduced the THUD allocation by over 25%. The devastating and wasteful impact of these cuts appear in countless metrics, from $101 billion in wasted fuel and lost productivity resulting from traffic congestion on 42% of America’s major highways, to stalled transportation projects that have left 45% of American households without access to public transit; from 70,000 low income families losing rental assistance opportunities since 2012, to risking recent progress in reducing chronic homelessness by reducing overall support for the production and preservation of affordable housing.”

In the meantime, President Barack Obama is expected to deliver his budget request to Congress on March 4. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) now plans to release the majority of its budget details on March 4 and to release supplemental materials the subsequent week. Previously, the White House had said it would release only broad budget overviews on March 4 and all details on March 11.

HUD will hold a “Stakeholder Briefing” on the details of the President’s HUD budget request on March 4 from 3 to 4pm ET. Advocates who are not in DC can view the briefing via webcast.

The Administration reportedly will propose $56 billion for an “Opportunity, Growth, and Security Initiative” as part of its budget request. This will include $28 billion in non-defense discretionary and $28 billion in defense spending, amounts above the FY15 spending caps set by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 (BBA). The budget request would still comply with the BBA’s overall spending cap because these additional expenditures would be offset by mandatory cost savings and increased revenue.

View the webcast on March 4: http://portalapps.hud.gov/HUDMediaChannel/liveplayer_secondary.jsp
View a captioned version of the webcast on March 4: http://portalapps.hud.gov/HUDMediaChannel/liveplayer_tertiary.jsp

View the 302(b) letter: http://bit.ly/1gAmxvP
Sign the letter: https://nlihc.wufoo.com/forms/thud-302b-signon-letter/