House introduces $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill

The National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association reported that leaders in the House of Representatives introduced H.R. 2, the Moving Forward Act, a $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill that provides increased funding for roads, bridges, transit systems, housing, clean energy, broadband and more. 

The bill is expected to receive a vote in the House next week.

The Moving Forward Act includes an expansion of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), a long-standing legislative priority of NLBMDA. Specifically, the legislation incorporates provisions from the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act including:

• Establishing a minimum 4% credit rate floor;
• Increasing the amount of credits allocated to each state;
• Facilitating Housing Credit development in challenging markets like rural and Native American communities; and
• Increasing the LIHTC’s ability to serve extremely low-income tenants.

The NLBMDA said that it has been working diligently with its coalition partners to garner bipartisan support for the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act in Congress and is pleased the bill will receive a vote on the House floor as part of the infrastructure package. 

NLBMDA recently sent a letter to Congress encouraging them to include the expansion of the LIHTC in future stimulus legislation. To date, the bill has a total of 220 cosponsors (145 Democrats and 75 Republicans), which equates to over 50% support in the House of Representatives.

A summary of provisions in the Moving Forward Act can be found here and the full bill text here. 

The NLBMDA said that it will continue to provide updates to members as they become available and will be urging the Senate to take similar action.