Action Needed to Preserve BABA Language in Housing for the 21st Century Act!

We did not think we would be reaching out so soon following our recent update, but as we have always said, never underestimate Congress's ability to act when motivated. Yesterday, Chairman French Hill (R-AR) and Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-CA), along with Congressmen Mike Flood (R-NE) and Emmanuel Cleaver (D-MO), introduced the Housing for the 21st Century Act. This is the House's comprehensive housing bill, which the House Financial Services Committee will hold a markup on December 16th and 17th. Here is a section-by-section description of the legislation. 

To our dismay, the bill does not include the Community Investment and Prosperity Act, which would have raised the Public Welfare Investment Cap from 15% to 20%. It also does not include the Build Housing More Affordably Act, which would have provided an exemption of BABA mandates for HUD and USDA housing programs. We are confident there will be an effort to include the PWI cap increase when the House and Senate conference on their two bills. There is bipartisan support for this provision. Chairman Flood has also told us that he intends to bring up comprehensive BABA reform in 2026.  

To our relief, the HOME Reform Act is included in the bill, but we have been informed that the BABA language (Section 291) in that proposal faces the threat of deletion during markup. We are asking all HAG members to reach out to Democratic Members of the House Financial Services Committee and urge them to maintain the current BABA language of the HOME Reform Bill in Section 201 of the legislation. If you have a relationship with any of these Members, especially Ranking Member Waters, please contact them and explain that exempting HOME funds from the BABA mandates will reduce the construction and administrative costs of these developments. Also, explain that the waiver process through HUD is ineffective and does not provide the intended relief when applicable.   

If you need any assistance with this, please let us know. Thank you for your advocacy at this critical time.