September 2022 Monthly Newsletter: Legislative Updates & Other Housing Credit News

Congress Returns from Recess–Sprint to the Mid-Terms

This week Congress returns from August recess with a busy schedule in the month ahead in anticipation of the end of Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 on September 30. As we have reported previously, the House passed a package of six appropriations bills for FY23 on July 20, and the Senate Appropriations Committee released the chairman’s mark for all 12 FY23 appropriations bills on August 1. However, lawmakers are far from reaching a bipartisan agreement needed to pass an appropriations omnibus for the year ahead. Instead, we expect Congress to pass a continuing resolution to continue government funding at FY22 levels from October 1 until sometime after the November elections. Post-election, we expect the Appropriations Committees to use the lame duck period to attempt to reach an agreement on overall funding levels and final bills, which may also open the door for a year-end tax package.

ACTION is working with our House and Senate Housing Credit champions, as well as the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee, to advance our Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act priorities in the remaining months of this Congress. The best opportunity to do so would be if Congress were to attach a tax package to the final appropriations omnibus. A year-end omnibus has been a legislative vehicle in previous Congresses for enactment of Housing Credit provisions.

Whether Congress decides to move tax legislation in the lame duck session is still unknown. However, we must be ready to take advantage of this opportunity should it arise. To ensure the AHCIA is in the strongest position, ACTION is encouraging members to help us continue building bipartisan support for the House and Senate bills, especially in the next two months.

You can find the current list of cosponsors on the website under the Advocacy Toolkit page’s section on background materials, which we update as new cosponsors are added to the bill. In addition, we have state and district factsheets  and other helpful advocacy materials to share with legislators in your outreach and meetings requesting cosponsorship. If you need help finding any information for your Member of Congress or have a question, please reach out to Ayrianne Parks at aparks@enterprisecommunity.org.

Planning for the 118th Congress and AHCIA Re-Introduction

While we are working to enact as much of AHCIA as possible this year, we do not expect Congress to enact every provision of the bill. Because bills from a previous Congress do not carry forward into the next, we must prepare for reintroduction of AHCIA in the new Congress that starts in January.

Over the next couple of months, ACTION will be considering any modifications to the bill that we might recommend to our lead sponsors, under the guiding principles of bipartisanship, consensus support from ACTION Steering Committee members, and political feasibility. As a part of this process, ACTION members are welcome submit by September 30 potential policy proposals for inclusion in ACTION’s recommendations for the future bill. ACTION’s leadership will review suggestions with an eye toward provisions that can achieve consensus from our legislative sponsors and the Steering Committee. ACTION’s recommendations are proposals only, and our lead sponsors make all final determinations related to any modifications of the bill.

As in the past, there will be changes to reflect any provisions enacted in the 117th Congress. One example is the Inflation Reduction Act’s enactment of two of the AHCIA provisions in Section 309 to eliminate the basis reduction for use of 45L New Energy Efficient Home Tax Credit and the Investment Tax Credit with the Housing Credit. As Congress has acted on these provisions, it is not necessary to include them in the reintroduced bill in the 118th Congress. In addition, as outlined in the section above, we are hopeful that additional priorities from the bill will be advanced if there is a year-end tax package.

Please submit proposals via Google form by September 30.

ICYMI: ACTION Submits CRA Comments to Federal Regulators

As you know, the three U.S. banking regulators issued a joint notice of proposed rulemaking to strengthen and modernize the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulatory framework, requesting comments by August 5. CRA plays a key role in affordable housing, with CRA requiring banks to invest in low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities. In fact, approximately 73 percent of annual Housing Credit equity investment is CRA-driven. ACTION worked closely with our members and partners to prepare a comment letter in support of strong regulatory standards to strengthen the Housing Credit program. Read the final ACTION CRA comment letter.