With no topline spending agreement between House and Senate appropriators and only a few short weeks before a March 14 deadline, members of Congress are considering another short-term spending bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), to temporarily extend funding for the federal government and avoid a potential shutdown.
While House and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairs, Representative Tom Cole (R-OK) and Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), have reportedly made progress toward closing the $90 billion gap between the House and Senate draft fiscal year (FY) 2025 bills, once they reach an agreement they will still need buy-in from the committees’ Vice Chairs, Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA). Appropriators are also working under the confines of the “Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023” (FRA), which limits yearly spending increases in both defense and domestic programs to just one percent in FY24 and FY25.
Negotiations over the FY25 spending bill derailed after the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a memorandum on January 27 ordering a freeze on funding for federal grants and contracts. While the freeze was ultimately rescinded (see Memo, 2/3), the OMB memorandum created chaos and uncertainty among lawmakers and recipients of federal grants and contracts, as well as among individuals who rely on federal programs for everyday needs. The memorandum also sowed distrust between appropriators, with Vice Chair Murray noting the difficulty of “[agreeing] to a compromise on anything if the White House is going to assert they control [appropriated funds].”
Appropriations leaders still hope to reach a final agreement on FY25 spending, but some House Republicans are beginning to push instead for a full-year CR and the opportunity to “start fresh” on a FY26 spending bill. Because CRs hold funding steady year-over-year, and because the costs of operating housing, constructing homes, and providing homelessness services rise every year, HUD’s budget needs to increase in every spending bill in order to maintain the number of people and communities served by HUD’s vital programs. A full-year CR would put the families who rely on HUD assistance to keep a roof over their heads at risk of eviction, decrease the availability of homelessness services, and slow the construction of HUD-assisted affordable housing projects.
Take Action
Urge Congress to pass a final FY25 spending bill with increased funding for HUD’s affordable housing and homelessness programs
Insufficient funding, budget cuts, and long-term CRs have a devastating impact on affordable housing and homelessness assistance programs. CRs maintain spending levels from the previous fiscal year, but because the costs of affordable housing and homelessness assistance programs rise every year, increased annual funding for HUD programs is required to simply maintain the number of people served by these vital programs.
Advocates can use NLIHC’s resources to take action today and push Congress to pass increased funding for affordable housing and homelessness in FY25, including for NLIHC’s top priorities:
Full funding to renew all existing contracts for the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program.
$6.2 billion for public housing operations and $5.2 billion for public housing capital needs.
$4.7 billion for HUD's Homeless Assistance Grants (HAG) program.
$100 million for the Eviction Protection Grant Program.
At least $1.3 billion for Tribal housing programs, plus $150 million for competitive funds targeted to tribes with the greatest needs.
Use NLIHC’s toolkits and resources to take action on FY25 funding, including by:
Adding your organization to a national letter urging Congress to increase funding for housing, homelessness, and community development programs in FY25.
Emailing or calling members’ offices to tell them about the importance of affordable housing, homelessness, and community development resources to you, your family, your community, or your work. You can use NLIHC’s Take Action page to look up your member offices or call/send an email directly.
Sharing stories of those directly impacted by homelessness and housing instability. Storytelling adds emotional weight to your message and can help lawmakers see how their policy decisions impact actual people. Learn about how to tell compelling stories with this resource.
Using our “Oppose Dramatic Cuts to Federal Investments in Affordable Housing” toolkit: This toolkit includes resources, talking points, advocacy ideas, and other helpful information on defending funding for affordable housing and homelessness resources in the FY25 federal budget. Meet with your members and urge them to provide the most possible funding for these vital programs in any final FY25 budget agreement.
National, state, local, Tribal, and territorial organizations can also join over 2,300 organizations on CHCDF’s national letter calling on Congress to support the highest level of funding possible for affordable housing, homelessness, and community development resources in FY25.