U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) released the anticipated schedule for the House to finish its work on all 12 fiscal year (FY) 2025 spending bills, with a floor vote on the Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development (THUD) bill scheduled for the week of July 29. While the House’s Committee on Appropriations has yet to release its proposed bills, the committee recently approved along a party-line vote top-line spending allocations that would slash funding for THUD programs by 10% in the coming fiscal year (see Memo, 5/28).
If met, the ambitious timeline would ensure that the House finishes work on its FY25 appropriations bills before Congress breaks for August recess. However, the dynamic on Capitol Hill has changed little since Congress completed its work on FY24 spending bills in March, six months past the deadline of October 1, 2023. House Republicans have only a four-seat majority, leaving little room for disagreements if they aim to pass bills without Democratic support.
Moderate House Republicans are pressuring leadership to forgo adding contentious amendments – known as “policy riders” – to the spending bills this year. Last year, in exchange for their votes on FY24 spending proposals, far-right members of the House Freedom Caucus demanded the addition of extreme, controversial policy riders to the bills, forcing their colleagues to vote on potentially unpopular amendments, dividing the caucus, and stymying the FY24 process.
House appropriators are working now on drafting FY25 spending proposals. Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-OK) has stated his committee will be writing its FY25 domestic spending bills at levels significantly below what was provided in the final FY24 appropriations package, omitting a “side deal” negotiated last year that allowed for spending above the caps imposed by the “Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023.” Overall, the funding levels approved by House appropriators would decrease domestic spending by 6% and provide a 1% increase to defense spending.
Funding for HUD’s affordable housing and homelessness programs must increase every year to maintain the number of people and communities served. Reductions to programs like Housing Choice Vouchers, Project-Based Rental Assistance, and Homelessness Assistance Grants also result in cuts to 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.
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 to 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.