Federal Budget Deal Reached for Fiscal Year 2019

Lawmakers in Washington reached a deal to fund the federal government for the remainder of the 2019 fiscal year, which runs until October 1. The President signed the bill today, February 15, after it passed both the Senate and House yesterday evening, February 14, with veto-proof majorities.  

Under the bill, funding for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) tracks closely to other funding bills passed by the House during the government shutdown and a bill passed by the Senate on August 1, 2018.

Overall, the bill provides HUD programs with more than $12 billion above the President’s request, and rejects the President’s proposal for harmful rent increases and work requirements for tenants in public housing and other government assisted housing.

The bill includes $22.6 billion for Tenant Based Rental Assistance (TBRA) and $11.7 billion to renew Project-Based Rental Assistance (PBRA) contracts, an increase of $600 million above the President’s request. These funding levels are enough to renew all existing rental assistance contracts under TBRA and PBRA.  

The public housing capital account, which the President proposed eliminating funding for in his budget, will be funded at $2.78 billion, a $25 million year-over increase. The public housing operating fund also saw a slight increase to $4.65 billion.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition has produced a full housing budget breakdown that can be viewed here.