The U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Appropriations has continued work on partisan fiscal year (FY) 2025 spending bills, passing this week an FY25 proposal that would provide a 1% increase to defense spending in the coming fiscal year. The bill also contains many controversial amendments – known as “policy riders” – that would advance conservative priorities, a nonstarter in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
The House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development (THUD) is expected to hold a review of the FY25 spending bill for THUD programs on June 27, with a full committee review slated for July 10 and a vote on the House floor scheduled for the week of July 29. While the Appropriations Committee has yet to release its proposed bills, the committee recently approved along a party line vote topline spending allocations that would slash funding for THUD programs by 10% in the coming fiscal year (see Memo, 5/28).
In the Senate, the Committee on Appropriations Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) and Vice Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) are continuing negotiations over topline funding for defense and domestic spending bills. Both appropriations leaders have expressed interest in reaching an agreement to provide FY25 funding at levels above the vastly inadequate caps set by the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 (FRA). Under the FRA, spending for defense and domestic programs is capped at a roughly 1% increase over the previous year; however, funding for HUD’s affordable housing and homelessness programs must increase every year to maintain the number of people and communities served. Cuts to programs like Housing Choice Vouchers, Project-Based Rental Assistance, and Homelessness Assistance Grants also cut assistance to people who rely on these programs to keep a roof over their head, putting them at risk of housing insecurity, eviction, and in the worst cases, homelessness.
Without a topline funding agreement, appropriations subcommittees cannot receive their spending allocations – known as “302(b)s” – for the coming fiscal year and cannot divvy up funding among federal affordable housing and homelessness programs. Even once the House and Senate have drafted and released their proposed spending plans for FY25, appropriators in both chambers will need to work together to reach a final agreement. While FY25 will begin on October 1, because of the November elections there is widespread acknowledgement that Congress will not be finished with its FY25 spending bills on time and will need to pass a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the federal government funded and avoid a government shutdown.
Take Action: Tell Congress to Provide Significant Funding Increases for HUD in FY25
Your advocacy makes a difference! It is thanks to the hard work of advocates that in FY24 – at a time when programs faced cuts of up 25% – HUD received increased funding in the final spending bill.
Congress needs to keep hearing from you about the importance of affordable housing and homelessness programs! NLIHC is calling on Congress to provide the highest possible funding for HUD’s affordable housing and homelessness programs in FY25, including significant funding for NLIHC’s top priorities:
- Full funding to renew all existing contracts for the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program and expand assistance to 20,000 more households.
- $6.2 billion for public housing operations and $5.2 billion for public housing capital needs.
- $4.7 billion for HUD’s Homeless Assistance Grants (HAG) program.
- $100 million for the Eviction Prevention Grant Program.
- At least $1.3 billion for Tribal housing programs, plus $150 million for competitive funds targeted to tribes with the greatest needs.
Advocates can continue to engage their members of Congress by:
- Emailing or calling members’ offices to tell them about the importance of affordable housing, homelessness, and community development resources to you, your family, your community, or your work. You can use NLIHC’s Take Action page to look up your member offices or call/send an email directly!
- Using social media to amplify messages about the country’s affordable housing and homelessness crisis and the continued need for long-term solutions.
- Sharing stories of those directly impacted by homelessness and housing instability. Storytelling adds emotional weight to your message and can help lawmakers see how their policy decisions impact actual people. Learn about how to tell compelling stories with this resource.
National, state, local, tribal, and territorial organizations can also join over 2,300 organizations on CHCDF’s national letter calling on Congress to support the highest level of funding possible for affordable housing, homelessness, and community development resources in FY25.