House Appropriations Committee Releases and Approves FY26 THUD Spending Bill—Take Action!
Jul 21, 2025
By Alayna Calabro, NLHC Senior Policy Analyst
The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations released, reviewed, and passed out of committee by a 35-28 party-line vote a fiscal year (FY) 2026 spending bill that would provide $67.8 billion for HUD’s vital affordable housing, homelessness, and community development programs in FY26—a decrease of $939 million from FY25. The full committee vote followed a July 14 vote in the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) to advance the legislation. The Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to consider their THUD draft bill in full committee on July 24.
FY26 THUD Spending Bill
The THUD spending bill provides annual funding for the vital HUD programs and services people and communities rely on for affordable, accessible housing, rental assistance, homelessness services, and community development programs. The House’s proposal would fund HUD at $67.8 billion, a decrease of $939 million from FY25. While this level of funding cannot maintain critical investments in affordable housing and homelessness programs, it largely rejects the draconian cuts President Trump called for in his FY26 HUD spending request. The White House’s FY26 spending request included historic cuts to HUD programs, as well as proposals to redesign HUD rental and homelessness assistance programs altogether.
Although the House draft bill rejects the Administration’s proposals to redesign rental and homelessness assistance, it would reduce funding for critical housing programs. Additionally, the House draft bill includes problematic policy proposals, including one that would provide HUD with broad flexibility to allow public housing authorities (PHAs) to waive or create alternatives to key statutory requirements, which could allow for harmful work requirements, time limits, and rent increases.
For details, see NLIHC’s complete analysis and updated budget chart.
THUD Markup
On July 17, the House Appropriations Committee approved the draft spending bill on a party-line vote. While Republicans praised the bill, Democratic members of the Appropriations Committee expressed opposition during markups to the spending bill’s cuts across many of HUD’s critical programs, including housing subsidies, fair housing activities, legal assistance for eviction prevention, and supply-side programs. “This bill is a pro-eviction, pro-homelessness, and pro-discrimination platform,” remarked Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee.
The bill’s elimination of supply-side funding for the HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME), a grant program supporting affordable housing production, was of particular concern to many committee members. “Eliminating funding for HOME Investment Partnership Programs is going to make it harder to build more houses, lower the cost of housing, and give more people an opportunity to find affordable housing or rent,” noted Representative Pete Aguilar (D-CA). “It does not make sense to take away one of the most effective tools we have for low-income and working-class families.”
Several Democratic members highlighted the bill’s 67% cut to HUD’s fair housing activities, which support the processing of housing discrimination claims and the enforcement of fair housing laws. “Fair housing is not merely something we ought to enforce. It’s the law, and it's a civil right,” stated Representative Bonnie Watson-Coleman (D-NJ). “We must remember what our history has shown us as it relates to fairness in the access to housing.”
In response to claims that the bill would provide fiscal discipline and regulatory relief, many Democratic members of the committee were against shifting burdens onto populations experiencing housing instability. “In this appropriations process, Republicans claim we must responsibly cut federal spending because of deficit concerns. But their definition of ‘responsible’ is taking housing away from vulnerable Americans and kicking the can down the road on addressing this country’s growing housing shortage, homelessness crisis, and crumbling infrastructure problems,” stated Representative Jim Clyburn (D-SC).
Representatives Mike Quigley (D-IL), DeLauro, and Clyburn offered amendments that would strike many of the bill’s proposed cuts to critical HUD programs, including HOME and other supply-side programs, fair housing activities, legal assistance for eviction prevention, and more. The amendments did not pass.
Take Action!
The Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to consider their THUD draft bill in full committee on July 24. Congress has until October 1—the beginning of the federal fiscal year—to draft, negotiate, and pass final FY26 spending bills. Without a final spending agreement, Congress will need to enact a short-term funding patch known as a continuing resolution (CR) to maintain funding for federal programs and avoid a partial federal government shutdown. While Republicans control both the House and the Senate, any spending bill needs at least 60 votes to pass the Senate, so final appropriations bills will need bipartisan support to be enacted.
Keep the pressure on your representatives by contacting your members of Congress and urging them to protect and expand investments in vital affordable housing and homelessness programs!
Use NLIHC’s toolkits and resources to take action on FY26 funding, including by:
- Using NLIHC’s advocacy toolkit, “Opposing Cuts to Federal Investments in Affordable Housing,” to call on Congress to protect and expand affordable housing and homelessness resources, including NLIHC’s priorities:
- Full funding to renew all existing Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) contracts and funding to renew 60,000 Emergency Housing Vouchers (EHVs).
- Increased funding for public housing operations and public housing capital needs.
- $4.922 billion for HUD’s Homeless Assistance Grants (HAG) program.
- $20 million for the Eviction Protection Grant Program (EPGP).
- At least $1.3 billion for HUD’s Tribal Housing Programs and $150 million for competitive funds targeted to Tribes with the greatest needs.
The toolkit includes talking points, advocacy materials, engagement ideas, and more resources for advocates to weigh-in with their members of Congress on the importance of these vital resources!
- 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.
National, state, local, Tribal, and territorial organizations can also join over 2,700 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 FY26.
Visit NLIHC’s Advocacy Hub for more information and resources that can help you take action and help protect the affordable housing programs people rely on.