CLPHA Advocacy

CLPHA joined with industry colleagues NAHRO, PHADA, and the MTW Collaborative today to send a statement to House and Senate Committee leadership urging their support for the ACC contract language included in the Senate’s FY20 THUD Appropriations bill. 

Because HUD’s proposed revisions to the ACC contain some provisions that are problematic and were not resolved during a joint industry meeting with PIH Assistant Secretary Hunter Kurtz and HUD staff, the four groups remain concerned that without the Senate appropriations language, HUD’s new ACC will not meet the standards set in the Housing Act of 1937 and the current ACC.  

 

ACTION:

As members of the House and Senate Appropriations committee negotiate the final THUD appropriations bill, it is imperative that CLPHA members contact their Senators and Representatives and urge them to support the Senate’s language on the ACC.

If your Senators or Representatives are appropriators (see the list below) it is critical that CLPHA members contact them this week and ask them to support the Senate’s THUD Appropriations language on the ACC.

If you have questions about this action alert or the current status of the ACC, please contact CLPHA’s Legislative Director Gerard Holder at gholder@clpha.org.

 

Members of the Appropriations Committees

HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

MAJORITY	State	Dist.		MINORITY	State	Dist.
Nita M. Lowey, Chairwoman	NY	17		Kay Granger, Ranking Member	TX	12
Marcy Kaptur	OH	9		Harold Rogers	KY	5
Peter J. Visclosky	IN	1		Robert Aderholt	AL	4
Jose E. Serrano	NY	15		Michael K. Simpson	ID	2
Rosa L. DeLauro	CT	3		John Carter	TX	31
David E. Price, THUD Chair	NC	4		Ken Calvert	CA	42
Lucille Roybal-Allard	CA	40		Tom Cole	OK	4
Sanford D. Bishop, Jr.	GA	2		Mario Diaz-Balart, THUD Ranking	FL	25
Barbara Lee	CA	13		Tom Graves	GA	14
Betty McCollum	MN	4		Steve Womack	AR	3
Tim Ryan	OH	13		Jeff Fortenberry	NE	1
C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger	MD	2		Charles Fleischmann	TN	3
Debbie Wasserman Schultz	FL	23		Jaime Herrera Beutler	WA	3
Henry Cuellar	TX	28		David Joyce	OH	14
Chellie Pingree	ME	1		Andy Harris	MD	1
Mike Quigley, THUD Vice Chair	IL	5		Martha Roby	AL	2
Derek Kilmer	WA	6		Mark Amodei	NV	2
Matt Cartwright	PA	8		Chris Stewart	UT	2
Grace Meng	NY	6		Steven Palazzo	MS	4
Mark Pocan	WI	2		Dan Newhouse	WA	4
Katherine Clark	MA	5		John Moolenaar	MI	4
Pete Aguilar	CA	31		John Rutherford	FL	4
Lois Frankel	FL	21		Will Hurd	TX	23
Cheri Bustos	IL	17
Bonnie Watson Coleman	NJ	12
Brenda Lawrence	MI	14
Norma Torres	CA	35
Charlie Crist	FL	13
Ann Kirkpatrick	AZ	2
Ed Case	HI	1

 

 

SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

 

MAJORITY	State		MINORITY	State
Richard C. Shelby	AL		Patrick J. Leahy, Vice Chair	VT
Mitch McConnell	KY		Patty Murray	WA
Lamar Alexander	TN		Dianne Feinstein	CA
Susan Collins, THUD Chair	ME		Richard J. Durbin	IL
Lisa Murkowski	AK		Jack Reed, Thud Ranking	RI
Lindsay Graham	SC		Jon Tester	MT
Roy Blunt	MO		Tom Udall	NM
Jerry Moran	KS		Jeanne Shaheen	NH
John Hoeven	ND		Jeff Merkley	OR
John Boozman	AR		Chris Coons	DE
Shelley Moore Capito	WV		Brian Schatz	HI
John Kennedy	LA		Tammy Baldwin	WI
Cindy Hyde-Smith	MI		Christopher Murphy	CT
Steve Daines	MT		Joe Manchin	WV
Marco Rubio	FL		Chris Van Hollen	MD
James Lankford	OK

The House of Representatives may vote as soon as next week on bipartisan legislation to permanently authorize HUD’s Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program.

The bill – the “Reforming Disaster Recovery Act” – includes key reforms to the CDBG-DR program to help ensure that federal disaster recovery efforts reach all impacted households.

The bill was introduced by Representatives Al Green (D-TX) and Ann Wagner (R-MO) and passed out of the House Financial Services Committee this summer with unanimous support.

CDBG-DR provides states and communities with flexible, long-term recovery resources needed to rebuild affordable housing and infrastructure after a disaster. By formally authorizing the program, the bill would help ensure the process is administered consistently and that dollars can flow more quickly to communities in need. In addition, the bill includes important measures to ensure that scarce resources are targeted to families and communities with the greatest needs.

For more information on these important measures please see the fact sheet from our colleagues at the Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition.

 

As a member of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, CLPHA is supporting NLIHC's Our Homes, Our Votes campaign to ensure the issue of housing affordability in America is front and center during the the October 15 presidential debate.

The campaign is urging CNN, The New York Times, and the moderators of the next debate—Anderson Cooper, Erin Burnett, and Marc Lacey—to ask the candidates about the most important issue impacting our economic wellbeing, health, educational success, and so much more – affordable homes.

 

Presidential candidates have released significant plans and proposals to address the country’s housing affordability crisis and are talking about these plans on the campaign trail like never before. Help us build the momentum and elevate housing affordability as a priority issue!

 

Sign Your PHA on the Letter Today

The City of New York is spearheading a sign-on letter for Mayors and municipal leaders across the country to request more funding for public housing from Congress. The letter thanks Congress for passing a bipartisan budget agreement which increases spending levels for domestic programs. With this increase, Mayor Bill de Blasio is asking Mayors and municipal leaders to call on Congress to support the effort to increase public housing funding. The letter calls on Congress to increase the Public Housing Capital Fund to $5 billion and to fund the Public Housing Operating Fund at 100 percent proration. "Increasing funding for these two essential programs will help ensure that nearly one million families will continue to have access to safe, decent, and affordable housing. It will also provide PHAs across the country with much-needed resources to operate and maintain the public housing stock in our communities." ACTION: CLPHA encourages member PHAs to contact your Mayors and municipal leaders and ask them to join the City of New York's Public Housing Letter as a co-signer.  For more information or to join as a cosigner please directly contact Crystal Price with Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office at CPrice@cityhall.nyc.gov or (202)624-5909 or use this direct link to join the Public Housing Letter. The deadline to join as a cosigner is Monday, September 16th COB.

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) is leading an effort in the Senate to boost FY20 funding for public housing. His office has asked CLPHA for help in encouraging other Senators to sign onto the letter to the Appropriations Committee requesting full funding of the Public Housing Operating Fund at 100 percent proration, $5 billion for the Public Housing Capital Fund, and $200 million for the Choice Neighborhoods program.

The following messages are being sent to other U.S. Senators:

 

PUBLIC HOUSING:

Sen. Menendez is inviting other Senators to sign a Dear Colleague letter in support of the Public Housing Operating Fund and the Public Housing Capital Fund. The letter requests full funding of the Public Housing Operating Fund at 100 percent proration and $5 billion for the Public Housing Capital Fund. The Operating Fund provides the subsidies necessary to cover the difference between the rents paid by residents and the operating costs of the property. According to HUD, their request represents a 54 percent proration of formula eligibility for Operating Funds and eliminates the Capital Fund.

Please encourage your Senators to sign on by contacting Erika Calderon at Erika_Calderon@menendez.senate.gov.

 

CHOICE NEIGHBORHOODS:

Sen. Menendez is inviting other Senators to sign a Dear Colleague letter in support of $200 million for the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Choice Neighborhoods program.

The Choice Neighborhoods program holds great promise as a way to improve economic opportunity, reduce concentrated poverty, and revitalize distressed communities.  The program’s targeting of local community planning and implementation generates a ripple effect, attracting new private investment to the revived communities.  For Fiscal Year’s 2010-2015, the program leveraged outside investment at a more than seven to one ratio, bringing in an additional $3.69 billion.  The requested funding for FY 2020 would allow the Department to fund five to ten Planning and Action Grants, to be allocated through a competitive process, and six Implementation Grants.

The President’s FY20 budget eliminates funding for the Choice Neighborhoods program.

Please encourage your Senators to sign on by contacting Erika Calderon at Erika_Calderon@menendez.senate.gov.

 

 

 

Encourage Your Members of Congress to Write to Sec. Carson

CLPHA is hosting a member call on Friday, February 22 at 1:00 PM ET to solicit member feedback on the notice of changes to the Annual Contributions Contract (ACC) that was published on December 27. A draft of CLPHA’s comments is available here.

If you have an example of how the proposed conflict of interest policy creates inconsistencies with local or state requirements (page 6), please email Emily Warren at ewarren@clpha.org or share that information on the member call. 

A set of talking points on the proposed changes to the ACC is available here. Please encourage your members of Congress to write to HUD to express their concern about the proposed changes.

 

Call Details:

Date: Friday, February 22

Time: 1:00 PM ET/10:00 AM PT

Call in number: (719) 867-1571

Passcode: 349101

 

RSVP for the Call

The bipartisan Congressional Public Housing Caucus, is still seeking new Members of the U.S. House of Representatives to join the Caucus. 

CLPHA conceived and helped establish the Caucus and we remain strongly committed to building its membership. The goal of the Caucus is to connect Members of Congress and their staff with key stakeholders of public and affordable housing, as well as educate them on the latest policy developments. 

ACTION:

We need your help in promoting the Caucus to Members of the U.S. House of Representatives. 

Please reach out to your Representatives and encourage them to join the bipartisan Congressional Public Housing Caucus.  

To join, Members of Congress should contact Mark Gilbride of Rep. Stivers’ staff (225-2015; mark.gilbride@mail.house.gov) or Jennifer Shapiro of Rep. Cleaver's staff (225-4535; jennifer.shapiro@mail.house.gov). 

Congress is due to return to Washington, D.C., on November 13, one week after the 2018 mid-term elections. In addition to Senate consideration of judicial and administration nominees, and the expected finalizing of FY2019 funding for departments and agencies currently operating under a continuing resolution, a strong possibility exists that Congress will consider tax extension legislation. This presents a new window of opportunity for CLPHA members to advocate for two tax credit provisions that are very important to the preservation and development of public and affordable housing: the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act and the New Markets Tax Credit Extension Act.  

 

Tax Extenders

According to the ACTION Campaign—CLPHA is a member of its Steering Committee—House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) has indicated that House tax leaders are speaking with their Senate counterparts about tax extenders legislation that Congress could consider during the lame duck session. This is significant since Senate leadership had earlier revealed interest in taking up tax extenders this year, while House leadership was previously unclear.

The ACTION Campaign asserts, “Should tax extenders advance as part of larger tax legislation this fall, which may also include technical provisions and other tax provisions, it may present an opportunity to advance provisions from the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act (S. 548/H.R. 1661). To position the Housing Credit as strongly as possible going into any potential negotiations in the lame duck session, ACTION encourages all stakeholders to continue conducting outreach to your elected officials to both urge them to sign on if they haven't already, and thank current co-sponsors for their continued support.” The ACTION Campaign also developed a website with advocacy materials for meeting with elected officials, including state and district level fact sheets along with other materials. 

 

New Markets Tax Credit

In addition to the Housing Credit legislation, Reps. Steve Stivers (R-OH) and José Serrano (D-NY) are asking colleagues to join them on a Dear Colleague letter urging Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) to include a permanent extension of the New Markets Tax Credit Program in any tax legislation considered during the lame duck session. H.R. 1098, the New Markets Tax Credit Extension Act, which would prevent the expiration of a tax credit that draws investment to low-income communities, has already garnered 102 bi-partisan co-sponsors. The deadline for House members to sign onto the letter is November 9.

 

ACTION:

1. CLPHA strongly encourages members to contact your Senators and Representatives and urge them to sign-on to H.R. 1661 in the House and S.548 in the Senate, if they have not already added their name to the list of co-sponsors. Here is a list of current House and Senate co-sponsors.
2. When asking your Members of Congress to co-sponsor H.R. 1661 or S. 548, also ask them to support adding provisions from the legislation to any tax extender legislation during the lame duck session.
3. Ask your House members to sign onto the Dear Colleague letter urging H.R. 1098 be included in any tax legislation during the lame duck session.