On July 23, the Senate began consideration of S. 1243, the FY14 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies (THUD) appropriations bill, after a bipartisan cloture vote allowing the bill to go to the floor for debate. The Senate bill would provide $6.6 billion more to HUD programs in FY14 than would H.R. 2610, the House’s THUD bill (see article elsewhere in Memo). While many of the Senate funding levels for HUD programs fall below the President’s budget request, S. 1234 is expected to be the high water mark for most HUD programs in FY14.
The THUD bill was selected as the first FY14 appropriations bill that the Senate will consider in part because of the strong bipartisan support it received in the Senate Committee on Appropriations. This bipartisan support continued in the vote for cloture on S. 1243 with 19 Republicans voting with all of the Democrats.
Over the next three days, the Senate completed other business with little floor time remaining for the THUD bill. The Senate passed one HUD-related amendment on the first day of debate. On July 23, the Senate voted 99-1 to accept an amendment offered by Senator David Vitter (R-LA). S. Amdt. 1744 would prohibit persons convicted of certain aggravated sexual assault from receiving subsidized housing resources. NLIHC objected to this amendment because it targets only low income people for engaging in a certain type of behavior and public housing agencies can today choose locally to impose such a prohibition. Numerous additional amendments on HUD programs were filed. On July 25, the Senate rejected a “motion to recommit” from Senator Patrick Toomey (R-PA) that would have required the Committee on Appropriations to rewrite the bill at a level nearly $9 billion below the Senate 302(b) allocation, close to the House THUD 302(b) subcommittee allocation. The measure to table the motion succeeded by a small margin of 56 to 42, with Republican Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Thad Cochran (R-MS) joining the majority to oppose the motion to recommit. NLIHC supported the motion to table the motion to recommit.
Numerous amendments that NLIHC opposes have been filed on the THUD bill including several by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK). S.Amdt.1754 would exclude federal funds from being counted as matching funds for McKinney Vento Homeless Assistance Grants, dramatically reducing the amount of matching funds that Continuums of Care (CoCs) currently have available and hampering the ability of CoCs to receive Homeless Assistance funds. Another amendment by Senator Coburn, S.Amdt.1753, would end authorization for the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. S.Amdt.1758 would reduce funding for the Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) from $3.15 billion to $2.79 billion.
NLIHC opposes three amendments filed by Representative Jeff Flake (R-AZ). S.Amdt.1768, 1791, and 1795 that would cut funding for the HOME Investment Partnerships program from $1 billion to $950 million. Two of the amendments would require a study on the HOME program be conducted and submitted to Congress.
Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) filed S. Amdt.1777, which would restrict any federal funds going to certain green building certifications that are not approved by the American National Standards Institute. NLIHC opposes this amendment.
Senator Coburn also filed an amendment that NLIHC supports. S.Amdt.1757 would require HUD to report on legislative options to modernize and increase targeting of the CDBG allocation formula.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) filed an amendment that NLIHC supports to create a “pay-for-success” pilot program to provide energy retrofits for certain HUD assisted properties, at no cost to the federal government. NLIHC joined 28 other national organizations in signing a letter to Senators Whitehouse and Boxer in support of S.Amdt.1761. “This pay-for-success model demonstration will address challenges we currently face in multi-family energy retrofits such as lack of capital, barriers to private capital participation, and split incentives among building owners and tenants,” wrote the organizations.
Additional Senators filed amendments that would affect HUD programs. The Senate will resume debate on the THUD bill the evening of July 29. It is not yet known how long into the week of July 29 the Senate will continue debate on S.1243 and how many of these amendments will be offered and considered.
On July 23, the White House issued a Statement on Administration Policy (SAP) that “strongly supports” S. 1243. The Senate bill “recognizes how important housing is to a sense of security for the American people,” writes the White House. The SAP continues with additional views and recommendations regarding S.1243. “The Administration appreciates the Committee’s support for HUD’s core rental assistance programs… [and] urges the Congress to enact the full $20 billion request for the Housing Choice Voucher program in order to maximize assistance to families seeking decent, safe, and sanitary housing.” The Administration also suggests meeting its request for Homeless Assistance, saying that the President’s budget request level would allow HUD to “serve at least 26,000 additional persons who are homeless and at-risk of homelessness.”
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) released a paper on S. 1243 on July 19. The paper highlights the stark differences between the Senate and House THUD appropriations bills, demonstrating that the Senate bill would preserve 100,000 tenancies for low income households compared to the House bill (see article elsewhere in Memo).
View the amendment letter: http://bit.ly/1bBzLby
View the SAP on S. 1243: http://1.usa.gov/164pspa
View the CBPP report: http://bit.ly/1e2Girs