The House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-OK) announced on April 25 that he would not allow any earmarks in the HUD fiscal year 2025 spending bill to go to nonprofit organizations. For FY25, Cole said, any earmarks in the HUD funding bill would be restricted to state, local, and tribal governments as well as public colleges and universities. Of the $3 billion in individual project earmarks in the FY24 HUD funding bill, about one-quarter went to nonprofit organizations.

During consideration of HUD’s FY24 appropriations bill, there was much debate and disagreement about whether to fund certain earmarks designated for LGBTQ affordable senior housing and other LBGTQ proposals; these were ultimately not funded by the House but some survived thanks to subsequent Senate inclusion, including one earmark for a LeadingAge member whose funding was stripped during House consideration, much to LeadingAge’s disappointment.

Of his decision to nix nonprofit earmarks from the House’s HUD funding bill for FY25, Cole, who was the chair of the House HUD appropriations committee until his ascension to full committee chair in March 2024, said, “Some of these [earmarks] are unobjectionable, some of them create political problems for people. That’s just the reality of it. I shouldn’t have to have a political problem in my district because I voted for a bill that had your earmark in it.”

On April 30 and May 1, respectively, the Senate and House HUD appropriations subcommittees will hold hearings on HUD’s fiscal year 2025 budget request. HUD Acting Secretary Adrienne Todman is the sole witness at both hearings.

LeadingAge is disappointed in HUD’s request for FY25 because, in part, it does not seek any funding for new Section 202 homes or new HUD service coordinators. LeadingAge is urging Congress to instead increase funding for affordable housing for older adults, including for the Section 202 program, new service coordinators, and new Older Adult Special Purpose Vouchers.

Take Action: Congress Must Adequately Fund Affordable Senior Housing.

The White House released and sent to Congress its Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 budget summary. Because of strict budget caps imposed by the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, the Administration’s budget balances mostly level funding with proposals for new initiatives for aging services, including on workforce, Medicaid, immigration, and affordable housing.

Overall, the President proposed relatively flat funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) but included a number of bold initiatives for housing affordability and access, including for older adults. Like in Fiscal Year 2024, the President proposed guaranteed Housing Choice Vouchers for certain populations and is seeking the first new project-based rental assistance contracts in decades, designed to serve extremely low-income households. Newly this year, the President is proposing to establish a $20 billion “innovation fund” that would help invest in new multifamily housing development, as well as a new tax credit for first time homebuyers and grants to help local efforts on eviction prevention.

The proposal also renews existing project-based Section 8 and Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly contracts, seeks renewal funding for Service Coordinators, and requests supplemental funding to preserve Section 202 units undergoing conversion through the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD). Missing from the proposal is significant new investment in Section 202 and Service Coordination.

Notably, the budget proposes continuity funds for the Affordable Connectivity Program, which will sunset as early as May 2024 without urgent investment.

Again, this is just the first move in a long and complex set of discussions and negotiations that will determine the actual budget for the federal government next fiscal year. Further LeadingAge analysis is forthcoming.