Senators Mike Johanns (R-NE) and Jon Tester (D-MT) reintroduced the Small Public Housing Agency Opportunity Act, S. 576, on March 14. The legislation would allow for greater flexibility from public housing and voucher program requirements and provide decreased oversight requirements for small public housing agencies (PHAs), defined by the bill as PHAs that administer a combined total of 550 or fewer public housing units and Housing Choice Vouchers.NLIHC is concerned that the measure would weaken many key regulations protecting the rights and security of tenants. Problematic provisions include the bill’s proposed rent reform demonstration that does not include sufficient protections for tenants or evaluation components; a provision allowing every small PHA to increase the percent of vouchers it may project-base from 20% to 50%; weakening Section 3 requirements for small PHAs; weakening key performance measures for both public housing and voucher program administration; authorization for small PHAs for comingle all of their public housing and voucher funding; a decrease in reporting requirements for small PHAs; and conversion of small PHAs’ public housing subsidy to project-based contracts or project-based vouchers without any of the protections included in the 112th Congress’s Rental Assistance Demonstration. The bill, S. 576, was referred to the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.