HYDE-SMITH SUPPORTS SWEEPING AFFORDABLE HOUSING LEGISLATION

Senate Approves 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, Includes Hyde-Smith Priorities

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), chair of the Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (T-HUD) Appropriations Subcommittee, today voted for a sweeping housing affordability measure that includes priority reforms she's supported to address housing needs in rural America.

The 21st Century ROAD (Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream) to Housing Act, which the Senate passed 84-10-1, represents years of bipartisan, bicameral work to remove federal regulatory barriers to providing more abundant and affordable housing options for Americans. Importantly, the bill does not authorize any new federal spending.

"Our country's housing crisis has grown over the decades, and this is a comprehensive effort to increase housing supply, cut regulations, and attack waste, fraud, and abuse in federal housing programs. In essence, this bill gets the government out of the way," Hyde-Smith said. "I hope that as this legislation is implemented, more Mississippians will have better access to affordable housing. The lack of such housing options is a problem affecting too many families in our state."

Hyde-Smith has supported legislation, policies, and funding related to key rural and low-income housing programs that are addressed in the Senate's 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. These include:

• Reforming Disaster Recovery - Permanently authorizes the Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program and establishes the HUD Office of Disaster Management and Resiliency to administer the program.
• Increasing Housing in Opportunity Zones - Allows HUD to give added weight to applicants serving areas located in, or primarily serving, designated Opportunity Zones to support housing preservation and construction. This section builds on Working Families Tax Cut Act, which permanently renewed and enhanced the Opportunity Zone program, driving more than $100 billion of investment to rural and distressed communities. There are 100 designated Opportunity Zones in Mississippi.
• Streamlining Rural Housing - Directs HUD and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to coordinate on joint environmental reviews for housing projects funded by both agencies. Hyde-Smith cosponsored the HOUSE Act to repeal the HUD and USDA Final Determination on energy efficiency standards for new construction of HUD- and USDA-financed housing that can add as much as $31,000 to the price of new home.
• Housing Counseling and Financial Literacy Programs - Allows HUD to review the performance of housing counseling agencies and counselors to ensure counselors are providing the best information to counsel consumers on seeking, financing, maintaining, renting, or owning a home. Hyde-Smith has made self-sufficiency a priority as part of HUD appropriations funding.

The overall 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act includes provisions related to housing supply, rural housing, veterans' housing, homeownership, manufactured housing, disaster recovery, regulatory reform, and coordination and oversight of housing programs and agencies. A section-by-section summary and additional bill information are available here.

With Senate passage, the legislation (HR.6644) will be returned to the House of Representatives for final approval before it can be sent to President Trump, who has made affordable homeownership a key economic priority.

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