Davis-Bacon Letter, Reconciliation Progress, and LIHTC Developments

Good morning, Housing Advisory Group.

We are in the midst of a lot of activity on Capitol Hill and DC in general.

First, we would like to make you aware of a letter to the Trump Administration regarding Davis-Bacon. This letter is the result of months of work with a coalition of housing partners, HAG members, and allies seeking to ease the regulatory barriers to affordable housing production. We are proud to have been engaged from the beginning in this effort, and to be clear, we began discussions with affordable housing partners literally after the election was called in November.

We and our partners are not anti-prevailing wage. We are simply seeking to address the realities of the marketplace, including the costs imposed on affordable housing by an outdated and unnecessary regulation and the limitations the regulation puts on affordable housing availability. We continue to work on other regulatory reforms that are hindering production and driving up the cost of affordable housing. Our conversations on regulatory reform with the Administration have been positive, and we hope to see action on them soon.

Regarding reconciliation, the process continues progressing, and Speaker Johnson might just get his vote by Memorial Day.  The Rules Committee is currently reviewing the package and addressing amendments, but the roadblocks to the package clearing the House appear to be falling away.  As we have always said, nothing is certain until the President signs the bill, but we may see the One Big Beautiful Bill make its way to the Senate as early as Thursday or Friday.  Then, we wait and see what changes the Senate might make and how those will play in the House.

Regarding the LIHTC, we are aware of a few amendments to the LIHTC title in the tax bill seeking it to be deleted from the bill and the LIHTC allocation reduced. These are from a Member who is anti-affordable housing and acts alone, with no colleague support, on these issues. We do not see his efforts going anywhere, and our allies are aware of this effort. We will keep you apprised of the progress on the tax bill and encourage you to keep up your advocacy efforts.

Thank you and stay tuned.