The president on November 21 signed a stopgap funding measure, known as a continuing resolution (CR), that will fund the government through December 20. This is the second CR of fiscal year 2020 (FY20), which began on October 1. The Senate passed the bill by a vote of 74-20 after the House vote of 231-192. The CR will continue FY19 funding levels for affordable housing and community development programs.
Leaders in the House and Senate also agreed on topline numbers for each of the 12 annual spending bills that fund the government. The House wrote and passed its funding measures prior to the bipartisan budget agreement that lifted the austere budget caps set by the Budget Control Act of 2011 (see Memo, 7/29), so the House bills are written at a higher level than the Senate’s, which were developed after the agreement. Both the House and the Senate have passed their versions of FY20 bills funding affordable housing and community development programs, but a final version will now need to be revised based these new topline numbers.
NLIHC urges advocates to reach out to their members of Congress and urge them to pass full-year funding for FY20. While CRs prevent government shutdowns, they do not provide the funding increases necessary to cover higher program costs. Learn more about the impacts of inconsistent funding on affordable housing and community development programs at: https://tinyurl.com/y4yzqxz2
NLIHC’s budget chart is at: https://tinyurl.com/y6tnabuo