AHCIA Clears 150 Cosponsors in the House

Housing Credit advocates have broken another record regarding congressional support of the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act of 2023 — this time with the House bill, H.R. 3238, securing 151 cosponsors! Lead sponsor Representative Darin LaHood (R-IL) had challenged the ACTION Campaign to bring on 150 cosponsors before Congress left Washington for its August recess, and we are happy to report success. The bill maintains party parity, with 75 Republicans and 76 Democrats.

The bill, which was introduced on May 11 – eleven weeks ago – started with a record 60 original cosponsors plus the bill’s six lead sponsors, and support has continued to grow. In July alone, the bill gained 35 House cosponsors. The bill is gaining support at more than twice the speed that it did when introduced in the previous Congress. Already, 79 percent of the Ways & Means Committee is on board.

The Senate version of the bill, S. 1557, also continued to break records. In July, it gained eight cosponsors. Those additions bring the total number of Senators signed on in support of the legislation to 28, evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats. The number of current Senate Republican cosponsors this year already exceeds the number of Senate Republicans gained in all of the last Congress. Fifty-nine percent of the Senate Finance Committee has cosponsored the bill. (Details of the House and Senate cosponsor additions in July are outlined below this post.)

Strong bipartisan support for the bill in Congress — with one-third of members already signed on as cosponsors — helps the bill’s champions make the case to congressional leadership that the AHCIA must be prioritized if there is an opportunity to advance tax legislation. While this is an incredible success, it means that continuing to grow support will require more effort from advocates to keep building on that momentum.

There is currently a queue of Democrats in both the House and the Senate waiting to cosponsor the bill. The bill’s leads are adding them to the official list as additional Republicans come on board. The ACTION Campaign will be working throughout the August recess to secure more Republican support, and we urge you to join us.

Please continue to help us build cosponsorship and remind supporting Members of Congress to prioritize the Housing Credit in any legislative vehicles this fall. We have a number of resources to help advocate for the Housing Credit in our online Advocacy Toolkit, including a newly released in-district advocacy guide with ideas and actions that advocates can take during the August congressional recess. Don’t forget to invite your partners and others in your network to join the ACTION Campaign!