Election Recap
Republicans Achieve Trifecta
Republicans will have unified control in Washington in 2025, having won the presidency and control of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The final party breakdown is 53 Republicans to 47 Democrats in the Senate and 220 Republicans to 215 Democrats in the House.
Over 50 AHCIA Cosponsors Departing Congress
As of this writing, at least 54 cosponsors of the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act (AHCIA) across the House and Senate will not be returning to their current positions for the 119th Congress. However, six current AHCIA cosponsors are becoming senators, and one former AHCIA cosponsor is returning to Congress after serving for several years as a senior Defense Department official. This does not mean that any Member of Congress who cosponsored the AHCIA in the past necessarily will do so next year, especially given the major tax negotiations that will be occurring. That is why it is essential to reach out to your Members of Congress and Members-elect now to urge them to support the Housing Credit throughout the next Congress.
Trump Taps Scott Bessent for Treasury Secretary
President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Scott Bessent to be the next Secretary of the Treasury. Bessent, a hedge fund manager, was an economic advisor to the Trump Campaign and will likely be a key leader of the incoming Administration’s negotiations with Congress for the tax package next year.
Trump Nominates Scott Turner for HUD Secretary
President-elect Trump nominated Scott Turner to be Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Turner was the executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council, focusing on implementation of Opportunity Zones during the first Trump Administration. He previously served as a legislator in the Texas statehouse.
Trump Picks Billy Long for IRS Commissioner
President-elect Trump has chosen former Congressman Billy Long (R-MO-07) to be the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service. Former Rep. Long cosponsored the AHCIA in the 117th Congress. However, the term of the current IRS Commissioner, Danny Werfel, ends in 2027. It is not fully clear if Trump will try to remove Commissioner Werfel before his term ends.
Legislative State-of-Play
Congress Returns for Lame Duck
Congress is in the midst of the post-election lame duck session, finalizing unfinished business in the closing days of the 118th Congress. Most importantly, it must decide how to handle government spending for Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25), as the Continuing Resolution (CR) it passed earlier this year expires on December 20. At this point, we expect Congress to pass another CR into at least early next year, punting final FY25 spending decisions into the 119th Congress.
Another important item on the lame duck to-do list for Congress is to address disaster recovery. As covered in the November newsletter, Congress is negotiating a spending package that could be as much as $100 billion to help rebuild communities devastated by recent disasters such as Hurricanes Helene and Milton, which is the amount proposed in a formal request sent by President Biden to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA-04) on November 18.
Housing Credit advocates had hoped the disaster relief supplemental would present an opportunity to advance additional Housing Credit resources should Congress include a tax title. The opportunity for tax provisions to be included in the disaster bill hinged on the inclusion of a non-housing disaster tax bill the House passed earlier in the year, H.R. 5863. That bill was also included in the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act negotiated by House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-MO-08) and Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR), which failed in the Senate in July. Unfortunately for Housing Credit advocates, the Senate took up and passed that standalone disaster tax bill on December 4, sending it to the President for his signature. This means that it is very unlikely that any tax changes, including Housing Credit resources, will move in disaster spending legislation should Congress be able to advance a disaster bill.
As always, ACTION will send out information about advocacy opportunities as they arise.
Expectations for Tax Action in 2025
Should congressional Republicans be able to pass a Budget Resolution, they will be able to use a procedure called budget reconciliation to pass tax legislation with a simple majority in the Senate, thus circumventing the filibuster and providing a path for enactment without Democratic support. Congressional Republicans have been public about using this strategy this since at least earlier this summer, stating that they want to move a tax package via reconciliation within the first 100 days next year, an incredibly fast pace for Congress.
Even with Republicans in control of both chambers of Congress, they may still face challenges passing a Budget Resolution, with intraparty disagreements about how much tax legislation should cost in lost revenues and other strategy questions related to timing and other Republican priorities that may need to move via reconciliation. This is complicated by a very narrow margin of control for House Republicans. While the final outcome of the 2024 elections in the House gives Republicans a majority of 220 – 215, there will be three vacancies early next Congress due to one Member’s resignation and two others who have been nominated for Cabinet positions in the Trump Administration, bringing the functional majority to 217 – 215 until special elections are held to fill those seats.
Reconciliation bills can only deal with raising revenue, spending money, and the debt limit. Reconciliation also comes with certain restrictions. Among them:
- Reconciliation bills cannot have provisions that do not have a fiscal impact, meaning the bills cannot have provisions that do not either cost the government money or raise money for the government.
- Reconciliation bills cannot contain provisions where the fiscal impact of the provisions is “merely incidental” to the policy goals of those provisions.
- Reconciliation bills cannot add to the deficit outside of the 10-year budget window.
Because all provisions included in a reconciliation bill must have a budgetary impact, priorities that simply change policy without associated costs or with minimal associated costs are not eligible for inclusion. The Senate parliamentarian makes the final decisions about which tax provisions may move through reconciliation and which ones may not. While most provisions of the AHCIA have not been scored, ACTION anticipates that provisions that expand program resources would be eligible, while those that make programmatic improvements would not be.
ACTION and our partners have been pushing hard to get as many of our Housing Credit priorities as possible into the tax package. There are reasons to be optimistic: even though the Housing Credit was not a part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, affordable housing is a top issue of concern to Members of Congress of both parties all across the country. Furthermore, the AHCIA has achieved record support in this Congress, and in the House, it remains the most-cosponsored tax legislation introduced during this Congress.
This does not mean we can take anything for granted. Advocates must keep pushing Members of Congress, regardless of their party, state, district, or whether they have ever cosponsored the AHCIA, to fight for the inclusion of these Housing Credit provisions in the tax package next year. Even if your Member of Congress is retiring soon, they still hold sway with other Members of Congress and staff, so be sure to urge them to keep supporting the Housing Credit as well.
What’s Next and How You Can Help
Getting a Member of Congress to a Housing Credit property and allowing them to see firsthand the impact affordable housing has on their constituents and the communities they represent is by far the most effective way to secure and maintain support for the Housing Credit.
To help with planning events and advocacy actions, we have published an updated in-district advocacy guide. The guide details steps that you can take to build support for the Housing Credit.
These actions include everything from a quick post on social media if you have only a few minutes, to an op-ed if you have an hour or two. For those with more time, we have included templates and best practices for setting up an event with your Senators and Representative. If you need assistance with invitations or planning tips, please reach out to actioncampaign@enterprisecommunity.org.
Members, Witnesses Support Housing Credit in Recent Congressional Hearings
During a November 19 hearing in the Joint Economic Committee, AHCIA co-lead Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA-08) raised the importance of the Housing Credit, noting its broad bipartisan support in Congress and lamenting that Congress has not yet passed the AHCIA. During another exchange, a witness urged Congress to expand the Housing Credit, since it is a proven tool for creating affordable and workforce housing.
The Housing Credit came up again in a November 20 hearing held by the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic Policy when the president and CEO of the National Urban League, testifying at the hearing, urged Congress to expand the Housing Credit.
ACTION Fact Sheets Updated!
ACTION has recently updated its National, State, and Congressional District Fact Sheets, which demonstrate the impact of the Housing Credit across the country and the need for more affordable housing. Since the program’s inception, the Housing Credit has financed the development or preservation of around 4 million homes across the country, serving approximately 9.28 million low-income households. These Housing Credit investments have supported an estimated 6.6 million jobs, generated an estimated $268.1 billion in tax revenue, and $746.5 billion in wages and business income. Please use these fact sheets in your advocacy!
Please use these fact sheets in your advocacy to continue building support for the AHCIA in the remaining weeks of this year. In addition, please check out several great new advocacy resources from our members, including an update to the Novogradac & Co. mapping tool, new research on the average rent savings for Housing Credit residents released by the Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition, and preservation research by National Low Income Housing Coalition, which are highlighted in the Housing Credit research section below.
AHCIA Cosponsorship Update
The AHCIA currently has over 57 percent of Congress cosponsoring. In the House, there was 1 new cosponsor in November, bringing the total number of cosponsors there to 273.
- Bill Huizenga (R-MI-04), November 1
In the Senate, there was 1 new cosponsor, bringing the total number of cosponsors there to 35.
- Laphonza Butler (D-CA), December 5
Help us keep the momentum going! Check out the ACTION National, State, and Congressional District Fact Sheets, our video series detailing individual AHCIA provisions, and more! You can find best practices for using those materials and advocacy ideas in our Advocacy Toolkit.
Administration Updates
IRS Reallocates $3.75 Million in Unused Housing Credits to 29 States
On November 18, the IRS published Revenue Procedure 2024-41, which allocates unused Housing Credit carryovers to qualified states from the National Pool for Calendar Year 2024. The IRS will allocate $3,757,225 in carry-over Housing Credits to 29 states. The list of states and the dollar amount of Credit they will each receive is available in the Revenue Procedure. A blog post by ACTION member Novogradac & Co. explains that carryover reallocations usually stem from other states having too few remaining Housing Credits to fund a Housing Credit property, but that the relatively small amount of reallocated Credits indicates that demand for the program remains strong.
ACTION Membership
In November, the ACTION Campaign welcomed four new members to the coalition. Please join us in welcoming the following new members:
- Andersen Corporation, Minnesota
- RMI, District of Columbia
- Princeton Community Housing, New Jersey
- BPC Action, District of Columbia
Help ACTION continue to grow our membership and advocacy strength by encouraging your networks to support affordable housing and the Housing Credit by joining the coalition. Membership is free. Together, we can demonstrate to Members of Congress the widespread support for the Housing Credit across the country. You can also help strengthen our reach by following the ACTION Campaign’s LinkedIn page and inviting your connections to follow and join us.
Housing Credit Research
- A new report by the Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition, an ACTION Steering Committee member, shows that across 80 metro areas, rents in Housing Credit properties are approximately 38 percent lower than market-rate rents. This means that Housing Credit residents save, on average, over $7,800 per year compared to those who live in market-rate properties, because their average monthly rent is roughly $653 lower than the rents their market-rate neighbors pay.
- A November 7 blog post by ACTION member Novogradac & Co. highlights their Housing Credit mapping tool, which advocates can use to find data on Housing Credit properties, units, and amount of Credits allocated over time – and help increase support for the Housing Credit and the AHCIA in Congress.
- A November 21 study published in Buildings revealed that, in the 101 largest metro areas, neighborhoods with Housing Credit properties placed in service between 2010-2015 experienced overall increases in the number of employees at grocery stores, healthcare providers, pharmacies, libraries, recreational centers, and job training centers – per 1,000 residents in each neighborhood – in 2016 than they had in 2010, compared to similar neighborhoods without Housing Credit properties placed in service between 2010-2015. This implies that Housing Credit has been a tool for community revitalization, improving neighborhood economies, and providing workforce housing.
- The National Low Income Housing Coalition, an ACTION Steering Committee member, and the Public and Affordable Housing Research Corporation published Picture of Preservation 2024, a report that analyzes the preservation of all types of federally assisted affordable housing. The report found that the Housing Credit helped preserve the affordability of over 34,400 units per year nationwide, on average, between 2010-2020, which represents about 39 percent of units funded by the Housing Credit during that decade. It further found that the Housing Credit helped finance over half of the country’s federally assisted affordable homes. However, the report also revealed that the Housing Credit has been preserving ever-fewer affordable homes per year on average, because the program is increasingly oversubscribed. The authors call on Congress to pass the AHCIA to help address this issue.
Housing Credit in the News
- A November report by a newly formed think tank called the National Housing Crisis Task Force published a sweeping federal housing policy proposal. Among its many suggestions is passage of the AHCIA to substantially expand and strengthen the Housing Credit to address the housing crisis.
- A November 4 op-ed in HousingWire by the Housing Assistance Council, an ACTION member, calls on Congress to pass, among other things, the AHCIA, in order to help address the rural affordable housing crisis.
- A November 12 article in Yahoo News profiles a uniquely designed Housing Credit property and argues that such properties could become more common while maintaining cost efficiency.
- A November 14 article in Affordable Housing Finance explores the prospects for affordable housing policy, and in particular the Housing Credit and the AHCIA, in the early years of the next administration. Multiple ACTION members are interviewed.
- A November 18 podcast by the National Housing Conference, an ACTION Steering Committee member, explores the future of housing policy during the upcoming Trump Administration, including about the Housing Credit’s chances to be included in the tax package next year.
- A November 18 blog post by the investment advisory firm Capstone covers the prospects for the AHCIA in the 2025 tax package.
- A November 19 webinar at the Bipartisan Policy Center highlighted the importance of the Housing Credit for providing affordable and workforce housing in rural, suburban, and urban communities. AHCIA House lead Rep. Darin LaHood (R-IL-16) underscored the importance of the program and touted the record-high numbers of cosponsors on the AHCIA. He also stressed that the bill’s leads and the members of the Community Development Tax Team are working hard to get Housing Credit provisions into the 2025 tax package.
- A November 19 Politico event on affordable housing featured strong endorsements of the Housing Credit and the AHCIA by multiple panelists, including AHCIA House lead Rep. Darin LaHood, AHCIA original cosponsor Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY-15), and Acting HUD Secretary Adrianne Todman.
- A November 22 article in Affordable Housing Finance covers a recent panel discussion held by several senior ACTION leaders about the future of the Housing Credit, the AHCIA, and other related affordable housing programs during the 119th Congress and the second Trump Administration.
- A December 2 article in MarketWatch highlights that the Housing Credit will be in the mix during the 2025 tax negotiations.
- A December 3 press release in PR Newswire highlights the completion of the first-ever Housing Credit property exclusively for the blind and visually impaired. The property, located in Chicago, also serves veterans and residents with disabilities.
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