Reps. DelBene & Beyer & 109 House Dems ask leadership to include LIHTC priorities in reconciliation legislation

We wanted to bring to your attention an August 25 letter from our House champions Reps. Suzan DelBene (D-WA) and Don Beyer (D-VA), along with 109 other Democrats, to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) urging the inclusion of the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act (AHCIA) in the Build Back Better infrastructure package. We thank Reps. DelBene and Beyer and all the signatories for this strong show of support for affordable housing and the AHCIA. We also thank all of you who reached out to encourage House Democratic Members to sign the letter. Your advocacy made a difference.

This letter is critically important as Congress moves forward on a second infrastructure bill that could carry provisions from the AHCIA. This second bill will be considered using the budget reconciliation process, an especially important tool in the Senate because it allows a bill to pass by a simple majority rather than requiring the 60 votes generally needed to advance legislation in the Senate. To use reconciliation, Congress must first pass a budget resolution. On August 24, the House approved a procedural measure that “deemed” House passage of the budget resolution passed by the Senate earlier this month. The House Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over the LIHTC, plans to formally consider its reconciliation legislation beginning on September 9 and complete its work by September 14 in order to meet the non-binding September 15 deadline for the various committees to report their reconciliation provisions.

Things are moving quickly, and we encourage you to continue to contact your elected officials in support of including the AHCIA in the reconciliation bill. Thank you for all you are doing to advance this much-needed legislation.