Formal Congressional action on rental assistance reform legislation in the 113th Congress has been minimal thus far, with most efforts having taken place in the appropriations arena. The President’s FY14 budget request sought a number of rental assistance reform provisions that were in previous versions of the Section 8 Voucher Reform Act or the Affordable Housing and Self Sufficiency Improvement Act (see Memo, 4/12). The Senate FY14 Transportation, Housing, and Related Agencies bill, which passed out of the Senate Committee on Appropriations on June 27, also included some provisions from SEVRA or AHSSIA (see Memo, 6/28). The Senate bill’s provisions include a new definition of “extremely low income” that would effectively allow higher income households to participate in HUD’s ELI programs, especially in pervasively poor rural areas where the current definition of ELI, below 30% of area median income, results in very few households qualifying for the ELI definition today. This provision is expected to raise significant revenue, more than $700 million over five years, as higher income households would result in higher total tenant rent payments, one reason it was included in the Senate’s bill. Another provision would allow greater flexibilities in how voucher units are inspected while making no changes to housing quality standards. Again, this provision would result in cost savings as housing authorities implement efficiencies to inspection processes. The Senate FY14 bill, S. 1243, has now stalled and it is unclear how the appropriations bill could be the legislative vehicle for these provisions or a larger rental housing reform bill if no FY14 bill is enacted and the federal government continues through FY14 on a Continuing Resolution.The House Committee on Financial Services held a hearing on June 26 to discuss the Moving to Work (MTW) demonstration (see Memo, 6/28). The MTW demonstration had been a sticking point among advocates for several years until a compromise “stakeholder” agreement was ironed out between various national organizations, including NLIHC, and HUD. However, Members of Congress do not have agreement on how to move forward on MTW and the demonstration remains a major hurdle for the overall rental assistance reform bill in Congress. Public housing agencies (PHAs) that are and are not current MTW agencies testified at the hearing, as did a representative from the Government Accountability Office, which has issued several unfavorable reports on MTW PHA demonstration sites and on HUD’s oversight of the program in general. Generally, the PHAs that have MTW status today argued at the hearing that they should be able to keep such status, under the same parameters they were awarded their status. And, generally, PHAs without MTW status argued that they should have access to the MTW program. NLIHC understands that any forthcoming House bill on rental assistance reform would not include the stakeholder agreement on MTW as its MTW title.The Senate may take up rental assistance reform legislation this fall, but likely after tackling housing finance reform. At this point, there are no bills in either the House or Senate. But, the significant savings from the overall bill remains attractive to appropriators struggling to keep HUD programs afloat and appropriations bills remain a possible vehicle for the overall reform bill or pieces of it. Link to the stakeholder agreement on MTW at: http://bit.ly/19HAXJi