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

The election results are mostly in, and control of both chambers decided. Now begins the sprint to negotiate final legislation for the last several weeks of the 117th Congress, a time post-election often called the lame duck session. Democrats held onto control of the Senate and Republicans won the House, both with slim margins. The fact that neither party will have a substantial majority in the 118th Congress may make it more likely that Congress will have a productive lame duck session, rather than punt important bills into next year.

The Georgia Senate race is still to be determined by a runoff on December 6, which will ultimately impact the makeup of the committees for the next Congress. Votes are still being counted in two House seats as of this writing. House Democratic Leaders Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, and Jim Clyburn have agreed to step aside from their leadership roles. House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy won reelection to lead his caucus, as did Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. Committee leadership and composition in both chambers is still being decided.

For Housing Credit advocates, all eyes are on the possibility of a year-end tax package, which would most likely advance with the FY23 omnibus funding bill. ACTION is working with our Congressional and White House champions to convey the urgency to enact our Housing Credit priorities as a part of these year-end legislative actions.

ACTION members should be aware of two important letters that went to Congress over the last week:

1. First, on November 21, the ACTION Campaign sent a letter to congressional leadership and tax-writing committee leaders, urging Congress expand the Housing Credit in year-end legislation. The letter, which was signed by over 2,500 organizations from across the nation, called on Congress to: (1) Increase Housing Credit resources by 50 percent. At a bare minimum, Congress should reinstate the 12.5 percent increase in Housing Credit authority that expired at the end of 2021, adjusted for inflation; and (2) Lower the Private Activity Bond (PAB) financing threshold from 50 percent to 25 percent to make more efficient use of existing PAB resources and significantly expand rental housing production. Together, these production-related provisions would add an additional 1.93 million new affordable homes over the next decade. (These projections were calculated by ACTION Campaign member Novogradac and are based on lowering the PAB threshold from 50 to 25 percent; restoring the 12.5 percent cut retroactively for 2022 and moving forward as part of the Housing Credit authority baseline; and then phasing in a 50 percent cap increase of (beginning in 2023 with a 25 percent increase and upping that to a 50 percent increase in 2024 and beyond.)
2. Next, Housing Credit champions Representatives Suzan DelBene (D-WA) and Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) spearheaded a congressional sign-on letter that garnered the support of 54 members of the House of Representatives (including DelBene and Wenstrup), split nearly evenly across party lines. Twenty-one members of the Ways and Means Committee–the House Committee with jurisdiction over tax issues–signed the letter, which advocates for the restoration of the 12.5 percent cap increase and lowering the 50 percent test to 25 percent. The letter went to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

The next two weeks will be critical for the inclusion of the Housing Credit in any potential final tax package. There are several ways to advocate for our Housing Credit priorities in a year-end tax package:

• Share the final sign-on letter ACTION sent to Congress and the congressional sign-on letter with your Senators and Representatives and members of your network.
  • If your Senator or Representative is on the House Ways and Means or Senate Finance Committees, ask them to include the Housing Credit as a priority in any tax package that moves forward in the remainder of this Congress, sharing local examples, state or district fact sheets, and other data points to convey the need and sense of urgency to take action.
  • If your Senator or Representative is not on those committees, ask them to contact their respective congressional leadership to convey support for the Housing Credit priorities in the letter and push for legislative action before the end of this Congress.
• You can also help by building up Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act (S.1136 / H.R.2573) cosponsorship, in particular with Republicans. While we have strong bipartisan support on both bills, increasing those numbers helps our legislative push if there is a bipartisan year-end tax bill.

If you have questions, need help finding your Members of Congress, or need contact information for their tax staff, please contact Max Brossy at mbrossy@enterprisecommunity.org.