Æðµã´«Ã½

Congress has approved its Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies fiscal year 2024 funding bill, and the measure includes $70.07 billion for HUD.

The T-HUD spending bill maintains critical support for HUD rental assistance programs, which assist nearly 5 million vulnerable households — more than half of whom are elderly or people with disabilities. This includes:

• $32.39 billion for tenant-based Section 8 vouchers — which will maintain housing support for 2.4 million households.
• $16.01 billion for the project-based rental assistance program to renew housing contracts serving 1.3 million households.

The T-HUD spending bill, which will fund the agency through Sept. 30, 2024, also includes several other provisions of interest to the housing community:

• $1.25 billion for the HOME Investment Partnerships program, which is $250 million below the fiscal year 2023 enacted level.
• $3.3 billion for the Community Development Block Grant program.
• Caps the Federal Housing Administration’s guaranteed loans for the Mutual Mortgage Insurance program at $400 billion and provides $150 million to carry out the program.
• Provides $35 billion limitation on guaranteed loans for the General and Special Risk Insurance Program.
• Sets a $550 billion limitation on guaranteed loans for the Government National Mortgage Association and provides $54 million to carry out the program.

Congress also approved fiscal year 2024 spending bills for several other government agencies, including Agriculture-FDA, Commerce-Justice and Science, Energy and Water Development, Interior, and Military Construction-VA.

Æðµã´«Ã½ is disappointed that a provision in the Senate Energy and Water spending bill that would have provided an additional $1.2 billion to boost the production of sorely needed distribution transformers did not make it into the final package. Æðµã´«Ã½ is already looking ahead to the federal appropriations process for fiscal 2025 and will make this issue a priority.

Also looking forward in the near-term, Congress must enact the remaining six appropriations bills — Defense, Financial Services and General Government, Homeland Security, Labor-HHS, Legislative Branch, and State and Foreign Operations — prior to March 22.

Æðµã´«Ã½ continues to push lawmakers to approve the full $1.7 billion in the Senate Labor-HHS spending bill for Job Corps, the nation’s most successful career preparation program for disadvantaged youth. The House Labor-HHS budget proposal completely eliminated funding for Job Corps.

The Home Builders Institute (HBI), Æðµã´«Ã½’s workforce development partner, is Job Corps’ largest skilled trades training provider. Between now and March 22 Æðµã´«Ã½ will work tirelessly with lawmakers to push for a final appropriations bill that includes full funding for Job Corps.

We will also work to ensure that authorization for the National Flood Insurance Program is extended through Sept. 30, 2024.