Senate Republicans released on April 23 a $568 billion infrastructure proposal in response to President Biden’s $2 trillion “American Jobs Plan.” The Republican plan would provide funding to repair the nation’s roads, bridges, public transit systems, ports and waterways, and airports, as well as investments in broadband expansion and water storage. The proposal includes no funding to address the affordable housing crisis or restore the nation’s deteriorating public housing infrastructure.
Republicans have criticized the “American Jobs Plan,” complaining the proposal’s scope is too expansive. The new proposal reflects Republicans’ contention that infrastructure spending should be limited to “traditional infrastructure” and is being labeled by Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), one of the Senate Republicans leading the effort, as an opening bid for further negotiation. Senate Democrats have largely dismissed the proposal as “not serious.” Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) noted the plan is “not big enough to meet our need.”
NLIHC is working to ensure that Congress includes in any infrastructure spending plan comprehensive resources to achieve housing justice, including priorities from the HoUSed campaign:
- Expansion of rental assistance to every eligible household
- $70 billion to repair public housing and make energy-efficient upgrades to existing public housing stock
- At least $40 billion annually for the national Housing Trust Fund to build and preserve homes affordable to people with the lowest incomes
Take action by signing your organization on to a national letter urging Congress to support robust investments in affordable housing at: https://tinyurl.com/zbau4kee
Learn more about NLIHC’s HoUSed Campaign at: https://nlihc.org/housed