Michele Thomas, Director of Policy and Advocacy

Policy Bill Advocacy Winding Down

Last week brought the session’s final cutoff for policy bills. All policy bills that are not necessary to implement the budget are now either on their way to the Governor or dead until next year. Many bills that made the long journey of passing their own chamber got all the way to the floor of the other chamber, only to die on the last day. But they will be alive in 2014 to start the process over again. To see where all of our priorities and support items landed, check out our Bill Tracker.

With less than one week left of session (the last day is scheduled for Sunday, April 28), it's now all about the budget and revenue. To protect our priorities and to win investments in affordable housing and homelessness programs, everything hinges on how much revenue the House and the Governor’s office can get the Senate to agree to. Less revenue = more cuts. It really is that simple.

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Take Action! This Last Week is Critical Advocates need to keep getting messages to lawmakers to tell them that the final budget must adequately fund the Housing Trust Fund (HTF); Housing & Essential Needs (HEN) program; and Aged, Blind, & Disabled (ABD) program and restore all the cuts within the Senate’s budget. Don’t forget, if the Senate has their way, our state will enact deep cuts to every affordable housing and homelessness program we have. The Consolidated Homeless Grants that fund emergency, youth, and domestic violence shelters; rent assistance; and more would be cut by 50%. HEN would be cut by 57% and ABD eliminated. The HTF received just $35 million, when the need is so much greater. So we must stay engaged and repeatedly urge our lawmakers to match the House Operating Budget and to match the Governor’s HTF allocation of $65 million. Please take action today and ask others to join you.

What’s Next?

Although technically possible, it's unlikely that our lawmakers will be able to reach agreement on the budget before session ends on the 28th. If they are not able, the Governor will likely call a special session. A 2/3 majority vote by both chambers of the legislature can also establish a special session, but tradition established over the last several years has the Governor taking the action. Special sessions can last thirty days at a time, and if the budget isn’t finished in that time, another one can be called. If we do run into a special session, it's rumored the Governor may give lawmakers a brief break before calling them back. If so, this break may present a great opportunity for advocacy when your lawmakers are back home. Stay tuned for more news on this.

Federal Advocacy Update

While the budget and revenue debates rage on in our state, they're also a central focus in D.C. That's why the federal budget also continues to be front and center for our advocacy efforts.

At the end of March, Congress passed a budget deal to take us through October. Advocates were able to secure some small increases for public housing and McKinney Vento Homeless Assistance Grants. However, as for the rest of the budget, it was as if someone took the Fiscal Year 2012 budget, crossed out "2012" and wrote in "2013." On top of that, Congress also failed to end sequestration. This means that right now the $85 billion in across-the-board cuts are winding their way through the complicated federal budget pipeline and seeping into our communities. The national organization Coalition for Human Needs has been tracking the effects of sequestration. And all is not well.

Advocates are now turning their attention to the Fiscal Year 2014 budget, which gives us a chance to undo some of these cuts and increase funding for the programs we need to build affordable housing and end homelessness in our communities. President Obama just released his budget last week: an end to sequestration, big increases for homeless assistance, undoing cuts to Section 8 and public housing, continued support for the Veteran Administration's homeless programs, and $1 billion for the National Housing Trust Fund.

Despite the good news for affordable housing and homelessness programs in the President's budget, it's a long road from a proposal to actually passing a budget. Advocates will need to continue staying active and involved and fighting for the programs that serve the most vulnerable in our communities. We also need to be thinking creatively to find new sources of federal funding for affordable housing programs. For example, the National Low Income Housing Coalition's United For Homes campaign, would redesign the Mortgage Interest Deduction and fully fund the National Housing Trust Fund. It's a great example of new and creative thinking. We recommend you check it out.

Further Reading

For a more in-depth examination of the budget proposals, the National Alliance to End Homelessness and the National Low Income Housing Coalition are both great resources.

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