U.S. House Passes 2020 Spending Bill

On June 25^th the United States House of Representatives passed the Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development (T-HUD) Fiscal Year 2020 Appropriations bill. Among the many funding increases, the bill fully funds tenant and project based rental assistance, at $21.4 billion and $12.2 billion respectively.  Additionally, the bill will provide over $21 million dollars in additional funding for Community Development Block Grants and the HOME program.

House Democrats also responded to HUD’s proposed “mixed status rule” by including language in the spending bill that would block the Trump administration’s rule change and took steps to protect against future efforts by the administration to allow homeless shelters to discriminate against LGBTQ individuals in HUD-subsidized shelters.

Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley carried three amendments to the bill. One amendment increased Section 202 housing for the elderly by $1 million and the second amendment increased funding for the Family Self Sufficiency Program by $5 million. Representative Pressley also secured funding to study how Fair Market Rents are determined in areas with rapidly increasing rents.

The Senate must now take up the spending bill, but the path forward is still unclear.  Ultimately, in order to move forward on a 2020 spending bill, both the House and the Republican controlled Senate must pass a spending cap bill and the White House must sign it into law. If a budget cap deal is not reached, and sequestration is triggered, next year’s budget will be slashed by $125 billion ($71 billion for Defense and $54 billion for nondefense), a 10% reduction from 2019.         

The 2020 fiscal year begins October 1^st.