While the CR drama dominated budget issues last week, advocates continued to press for strong HUD funding in a final FY14 budget. NLIHC joined national, state, and local members of the Preservation Working Group in signing a letter to House and Senate leaders on final FY14 funding for HUD rental assistance programs. The groups cite the Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies (THUD) FY14 appropriations bill, S. 1243, as the low threshold by which programs should be funded in FY14, though some programs need funding above the amount that would be provided by the Senate bill. In the letter sent on September 24, the organizations write, “Congress needs to ensure that funding for the Project-Based Section 8 program in FY14 is sufficient to fund all contracts for 12 months and avoid expansion of the short-funding strategy that is currently being used by HUD to make rental assistance payments and ultimately to ensure that payments in the future are continued on a timely basis.” The signers also urge Congress to provide substantial funding for tenant-based rental assistance, saying that the “final FY2014 funding bill needs to ensure that the Housing Choice Voucher program is provided enough funding to restore the 100,000 lost vouchers in FY2013 and provide an adequate amount for the Tenant Protection Voucher line-item.” NLIHC also joined a statement against sequestration organized by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights that was sent to Members of Congress on September 27. The statement calls for an end to the sequester, to not replace it with other cuts, and to protect programs that help vulnerable households. “Congress should defend the core security programs for those most at risk in this economy, such as impoverished women and children, the elderly, or the long-term unemployed…Cuts now projected in education, housing, home heating, Head Start, infant nutrition and other programs vital to low income families should be reversed.”View the PWG letter at: http://bit.ly/18FAZwG View the LCCHR statement at: http://bit.ly/1blsxoI