Bipartisan negotiations between the Biden administration and congressional Republicans over the president’s approximately $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal have slowed. The White House released on May 21 a $1.7 trillion counter-offer to Senate Republican’s earlier $568 billion proposal (see Memo, 4/26), reducing investments in broadband, roads, bridges, research and development to bring the bill’s cost closer to a number Republicans could find acceptable. However, the proposal maintains tax increases on corporations and the wealthiest Americans to help pay for the cost of the investments, which Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) called a “non-starter.”
While the White House says they remain hopeful a bipartisan agreement can be reached, lawmakers are running up against a “soft deadline” to make progress on a bipartisan agreement by Memorial Day. NLIHC is working to ensure that Congress includes in any infrastructure spending plan comprehensive resources to achieve housing justice, including these priorities from the HoUSed campaign:
- Expansion of rental assistance to every eligible household;
- $70 billion to repair public housing and make energy-efficient upgrades to existing public housing; and
- At least $40 billion annually for the national Housing Trust Fund to build and preserve homes affordable to people with the lowest incomes.
Take action by signing your organization on to a national letter urging Congress to support robust investments in affordable housing at: https://tinyurl.com/zbau4kee
Learn more about NLIHC’s HoUSed Campaign at: https://nlihc.org/housed