On Monday, Congressional leaders released all twelve appropriations bills to allocate $1.4 trillion in federal spending for the remainder of the fiscal year. Passage of these measures will prevent the government from shutting down at midnight on Friday. The legislation, divided into two minibuses, resolves differences between the House and Senate bills considered by those chambers earlier this year and includes funding for HUD programs for the fiscal year that began on October 1. The HUD bill is expected to be voted on in the House and Senate over the next two days.
While the HUD numbers are generally good news, there is some preliminary concern with the Operating Fund budget at $4.549 billion. This is $104 million less than the FY 19 enacted budget. Potential reasons for the decrease include changes in inflation factors as well as more units moving to a Section 8 platform under RAD. PHADA will provide greater analysis of this number as well as the entire HUD budget in an upcoming Advocate article and at the Commissioner’s Conference in Phoenix this January.
The HUD budget also includes provisions that PHADA has vigorously advocated for over the last two years. The first, Section 235, prevents HUD from using funds to require or enforce any changes to the terms and conditions of the ACC that was in effect as of December 31, 2017, unless such changes are mutually agreed upon by HUD and the PHA. Any such agreements must be in writing and the HUD Secretary may not withhold funds to compel such an agreement. Section 236 prevents HUD from using funds under this Act or the 2019 Act to consider Family Self Sufficiency performance measures or performance scores in determining funding for FSS coordinators.
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