With minutes to spare, Congress avoided a government shutdown that would have had serious impacts on housing programs for low- and moderate-income families. The action taken late Saturday keeps the government running at current levels for 45 days while negotiations continue on spending for federal Fiscal Year 2014, which began on October 1st. While this is good news in the short term, there are significant disagreements over what will be included in the spending bills, and it will require extraordinary effort to avoid the possibility of a future shutdown. See the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) analysis of the impacts of a shutdown on tenants of HUD-assisted housing and services for people experiencing homelessness.
The House and Senate will now have 45 days to pass their draft spending bills and negotiate differences, with the House bill appropriating about $2.4 billion more for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development programs than the Senate bill. To dig deeper, check out the NLIHC House analysis here and the Senate analysis here.
The House and Senate will now have 45 days to pass their draft spending bills and negotiate differences, with the House bill appropriating about $2.4 billion more for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development programs than the Senate bill. To dig deeper, check out the NLIHC House analysis here and the Senate analysis here.
