Congress

FY2024 Appropriations
House and Senate appropriations committees approved the FY24 spending measures in July 2023. Approved figures compared to FY23 enacted levels are below. The measures will move for a full vote by each chamber next. Congress has until September 30 to pass a full-year appropriations bill or continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown.

Homeless Assistance: $3.73B (House); $3.9B (Senate); FY23 – $3.633B
HOME: $500m (House); $1.5B (Senate): FY23 – $1.5B
CDBG: $3.3B (both); FY23 – $3.3B
Recovery Housing: $30m (both); FY23 – $30m
Economic Dev Initiative: $2.2B (House); $1B (Senate); FY23 – $2.9B
Section 108 Loans: $300m (House); $400m (Senate); FY23 – $300m

Notable committee directives are as follows:
Continuum of Care biennial competition
– the Senate measure allows HUD to establish a two-year application for FY24 and FY25

Yes in My Backyard
– the Senate measure funds $100m for the competitive grant program to incentivize local and state actions on barriers to housing development

CDBG formula study
– the Senate measure directs HUD to complete its overdue report on modernizing the CDBG formula to inform program reauthorization

CDBG and HOME rulemaking
–  the Senate measure encourages HUD to release proposed rules on CDBG and HOME in 2023 and move towards finalizing each soon thereafter

Interagency coordination
– the House measure directs HUD to work with federal agencies on better program and policy alignment between CDBG and other federal investments with similar goals

Affordable housing in rural communities
– the House measure requests HUD to brief the committee on unique needs and challenges on addressing affordable housing in rural communities

COSCDA has joined with national partners to advocate for CPD programs in the fiscal year 2024 appropriations process. Both CDBG and HOME coalitions have issued appropriations requests to advocate for respective programs.  Also, COSCDA is engaging with key congressional offices to discuss the importance of CPD programs.  COSCDA continues to engage with individual states to obtain further information showcasing program results.

COSCDA supports the following funding levels for CPD programs in FY24:

  • CDBG: $4.2 billion ($900 million above FY23)
  • Homeless Assistance: Robust resources no less than the FY23 level ($3.63 billion)
  • HOME: $2.5 billion ($1 billion above FY23)

COSCDA’s FY24 funding priorities are available here.

As a start to the annual appropriations process, the president released his FY24 budget request on April 9.  HUD’s FY24 request features increased investments to staffing and programs at CPD.

Once the president’s budget is received, Congress determines policies and procedures to establish the annual appropriations process.  A budget agreement is required for top-line caps on discretionary spending in FY24 and beyond.  Once this is determined, the appropriations process can move forward.  For more details on the budget process, click here for an overview by The Washington Post.

The 2024 fiscal year begins on October 1.  Annual appropriations or a continuing resolution needs to be signed into law before this date to avoid a lapse in federal spending.

 

Program Reauthorization
COSCDA is underway in advocating for reauthorization of CDBG and HOME programs. Both were last reauthorized in the Housing and Community Development Act of 1992 for FY 1993 and 1994. 

Reauthorization efforts would target increased resources and streamline administration for improved program outcomes. Specifically, COSCDA seeks the following for each program:

CDBG
– Renewed authorized funding level
– New activities for housing construction & fair housing
– Revised administrative cap for states (6%) and threshold for match funds ($500,000)
– Enhanced flexibility in using CDBG for public services, increased cap to 15%

HOME
– Updated authorized funding level
– Removal of the 24-month commitment deadline
– Revised policy on Community Housing Development Organization set-aside funds allowing grantees to retain funds  
– Creation of a loan guarantee program similar to CDBG’s Section 108 program
– Updated qualification threshold for participating jurisdictions to receive funds
– Revised administrative cap (15%)

 

Disaster Recovery Authorization
Reintroduced in May 2023, the Reforming Disaster Recovery Act would codify the CDBG-Disaster Recovery program (CDBG-DR) and direct reforms to improve expediency and accountability of federal resources.  Specifically, the measure would establish an office to coordinate HUD’s disaster resiliency and recovery efforts, support data access between HUD and other federal entities, and insert timelines on plan approval and funding availability to grantees, among other needed improvements to the program.  At the core of the program’s challenges are cumbersome and inconsistent administrative processes which have delayed funds to impacted areas and impeded long-term recovery efforts.

The bill was first introduced in 2019 with the House approving the measure on a bi-partisan vote.  

Previous companion bills have been introduced in the House and Senate. For 2023, the bill was submitted as amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Sens. Brian Schatz (D-HI), Susan Collins (R-ME), Todd Young (R-IN), and others (a total of 14 co-sponsors) are leading the bill.  

COSCDA is continuing to engage congressional members to ensure enactment of the legislation and state priorities are adopted in the bill.  Further updates will be provided as available. 

 

YIMBY Act
The Yes in My Backyard Act (YIMBY Act)(H.R. 3507)(S. 1688) would require CDBG grantees to report on an extensive list of land use policies.  Grantees would need to provide an update as a part of the consolidated plan.

The legislation has been reintroduced in the 118th Congress.  In the House, the legislation is led by Rep. Kilmer (WA) with over a dozen co-sponsors. In the Senate, the bill is led by Sens. Todd Young (IN) and Brian Schatz (HI).

COSCDA has engaged directly with congressional offices to communicate the legislation’s impact on CDBG administration as well as relevance to jurisdictional housing and development needs.  Click here for COSCDA’s letter to committee leadership.  Similar correspondence has been sent to bill co-sponsors.

The legislation is pending further consideration in respective House and Senate committees (House Financial Services and Senate Banking). 

 

Housing & Urban Development

CDBG & HOME rulemaking
Expected rules for CDBG and HOME will be published in 2023. Both rulemaking efforts are mentioned in HUD’s FY2024 budget. For CDBG, the rule will focus on updates to program use for economic development, streamlining reporting requirements, clarification on public participation, and related updates to reduce administrative burdens. For HOME, the department aims for regulatory reforms to assist affordable housing development and promote ease of access and use of program resources.

COSCDA is advocating for release of each rule in 2023 and will provide comments when proposed rules are introduced.

 

Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing
On February 9, HUD released its proposed rule on Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH). The latest rule is the agency’s effort to revive federal fair housing policies at the state and local levels. In introducing the rule, HUD states the updated policy’s intent to “simplify fair housing analysis, emphasize goal-setting, increase transparency for public review and comment, foster local commitment to addressing fair housing issues, enhance HUD technical assistance to local communities, and provide mechanisms for regular program evaluation and greater accountability, among other changes.” The rule proposes recipients of HUD funds including CPD grantees to accommodate fair housing through the creation of Equity Plans with annual progress evaluations. Additionally, the rule would support a new complaint filing process to allow the public to report HUD program participants if AFFH commitments are not being met.

COSCDA submitted comments on the rule ahead of the April 21 deadline. Issues shared include restrictions on statewide planning through HUD-CPD resources, inadequate data and public participation in rural communities, and challenges in AFFH implementation due to jurisdictional overlap of Equity Plans. Other stakeholder comments are available here.

A final rule is anticipated by the end of 2023. COSCDA will continue to offer input to HUD and support states alignment with the new policy.

 

Davis Bacon Labor Standards
On August 23, 2023, the Department of Labor (DOL) released its final rule on the Davis Bacon and Labor Standards Act. The final rule is the first revision of Davis Bacon in 40 years and makes several updates to the policy including: reverting to the pre-1982 three step process for determining a prevailing wage, adding flexibility to scope of area to determine wage rates, allow state and local wage rates to replace DB prevailing wages in certain circumstances, and providing more frequent updates to data informing wage rates.

COSCDA submitted comments to the proposed rule on May 16, 2022. The comments reflected input from COSCDA’s core programs and responded to the challenges of administrative requirements involved in addressing DBLS.

Available resources can be found on DOL’s Davis Bacon webpage. A September 2023 webinar details an overview of the rule and changes to the policy.

COSCDA will engage further with HUD’s Office of Davis Bacon and Labor Standards to coordinate more information on the updated rule’s impact on HUD programs.

 

National Environmental Policy Act
A revised rule to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was issued by the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) on April 20, 2022. The final rule updates the purpose and need statement in an environmental impact statement. The rule also removes language that could restrict agencies’ ability to proceed with processes that go beyond CEQ requirements. Lastly, the rule revises the definition of effects to widen it to direct, indirect, and cumulative effects.

COSCDA is seeking updates to allow adoption of other environmental reviews on projects which feature HUD and other federal investments. In response, HUD has provided a draft memorandum outlining how HUD responsible entities may take action to address their respective environmental reviews containing two or more federal resources. COSCDA submitted comments previously to the agency outlining several areas of improvement to ease administrative burdens and improve program performance. HUD is awaiting further direction from CEQ on aligning their own environmental review process with the revised NEPA policy. COSCDA will pursue further actions to streamline the environmental review process for state-led HUD programs.