The White House wants to eliminate housing funds. Republicans aren’t having it.
Republican lawmakers are openly criticizing White House proposals to cancel federal programs that help build and rehabilitate housing for low-income Americans, ahead of a midterm election dominated by frustrations over affordability.
President Donald Trump proposed budget last month suggested cutting it out completely Housing and community development funds used by state and local governments to improve neighborhood conditions and increase housing supply.
Republicans as Capitol Hill kicks off its own budget season put forward a spending bill We protect the grants and work with Democrats to pass affordable housing legislation that will build on these programs.
“I was disappointed when I saw [the Office of Management and Budget] “We are proposing to eliminate these important programs,” said Senate Transportation-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) told Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner last week at a hearing reviewing the administration’s request to cut $10.7 billion from its budget, a 13 percent reduction in discretionary spending.
Cost of living will be a decisive issue in the 2026 elections. Congress hopes housing affordability will be a bipartisan project that can be addressed before the midterms. And Republicans I’m trying to show They focus on the economic well-being of Americans.
The President’s budget proposal aims to completely eliminate long-standing HUD programs, including the Community Development Block Grant and HOME Investment Partnerships. These programs provide billions of dollars in flexible financing that states and local governments can use to improve neighborhood conditions and increase housing supply.
The White House, OMB and HUD did not respond to requests for comment.
In its proposed budget, the administration argued that grant programs were being misused to fund ideologically liberal initiatives, citing projects that prioritize energy sustainability or include diversity, equity and inclusion goals.
But congressional GOP takeovers paint a different picture.
“From where I sit in West Virginia, I can tell you it’s a very effective program,” the Republican Senator said. Shelley Moore Capito At a Senate hearing with Turner this month.
Head of Household Allowance Tom Cole (R-Okla.) attended the House Transportation-HUD subcommittee meeting and reminded colleagues to “remember that is where the power of the appropriations committee is and we will be making these decisions.”
“I can assure you that we will not continue to make cuts of this magnitude to these programs,” he added, citing the popular bipartisan block grants as well as Native American housing financing.
House Republicans then HUD improves budget draft Grants are being maintained this week, but it is recommended that HOME’s funding level be reduced in the next financial year.
Home Transportation-HUD Appropriations Director Steve Womack (R-Ark.) told POLITICO that the federal budget “must be bipartisan, and anyone who doesn’t realize that is not living in reality.”
Mike Wallace, legislative director for the National League of Cities, said the grants are popular across the corridor in part because of their flexibility and ability to be broadly applied to communities of different sizes across the country. Republican and Democratic lawmakers hear from local governments and nonprofits about how these funds contribute to improvements in their districts.
“Members need to know: ‘What good is it for my district?’” Wallace said. “If they can see it, it’ll be a lot easier.”
You. John Kennedy (R-La.), an appropriator and a member of the Banking Committee that oversees HUD, advocated using Community Development Block Grant funds to encourage states and localities to promote increased housing supply.
“I think it’s a program worth fixing,” Kennedy said in an interview when asked what he thought of the administration’s push to eliminate the grant.
Despite the end of these housing programs also revealed Trump did not make a deep commitment to budget cuts in the White House proposal last year. The President supports a bipartisan housing affordability bill that includes provisions that leverage and update grant programs. An overwhelming version of the legislation passed the parliament last Wednesday.
Still, Democrats say the proposed cuts prove Trump’s claim that he is out of touch with the needs of most Americans.
“He mostly cares about the belt And ballroom and other stuff,” top Democratic appropriator Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) told POLITICO. “He really doesn’t care what happens to the American people.”
