This morning, the House passed the Build Back Better Act, H.R. 5376, by a vote of 220-to-213. The legislation includes the largest expansion of the Housing Credit program since its inception in 1986 and would finance an estimated 811,900 affordable rental homes over 2022-2031, housing nearly 1.9 million low-income people. The almost $12 billion in Housing Credit investment is expected to create over 1.2 million jobs, $137 billion in wages and business income, and $47 billion in tax revenue, according to estimates from ACTION member Novogradac and Company.
The legislation includes several Housing Credit production provisions modeled after those in the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act, as well as additional Housing Credit-related provisions, all of which are detailed in ACTION’s recent blog post.
What’s Next
Now that the legislation has passed the House, the bill will move to the Senate for consideration, where it will be taken up after the Thanksgiving holiday. The Senate Parliamentarian is currently considering all aspects of the bill and will decide whether any provisions or portions of provisions run afoul of special Senate rules for reconciliation legislation, and thus would likely be pulled from the bill.
In comments to the media yesterday, House leadership indicated that some pre-negotiating between the chambers has taken place, but it is anticipated that more changes may be required to secure the full support of Senate Democrats to pass the Build Back Better Act.
With that in mind, we encourage ACTION members to not only thank House members who voted for the Housing Credit expansion as a part of the Build Back Better Act, but also to contact your Senators to ensure the chamber preserves the strong investment in Housing Credit production to address our nation’s affordable housing crisis.
