The House and the Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) Appropriations subcommittees are charged with providing annual appropriations for the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and certain related agencies.

This report describes action on FY2024 annual appropriations for THUD, including detailed tables for each major agency and a brief overview of selected issues.

FY2024 Budget Process

Appropriations for DOT, HUD, and the related agencies typically funded in the THUD bill happen in the context of the broader annual congressional appropriations process. That process generally begins with the submission of the President's budget request, followed by adoption of congressional spending limits (generally, in a budget resolution) that set the overall level of spending for that fiscal year's appropriations bills. From there, the subcommittees of the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations generally begin action on each of the 12 appropriations bills. While each bill reported out of the Appropriations Committee may receive floor consideration individually, in recent years it has been more common for bills to be considered in combination with one another in consolidated or omnibus appropriations acts.

The President's budget request for the upcoming fiscal year is due to be submitted to Congress by the first Monday in February. The President's budget request for FY2024 was submitted on March 9, 2023, about five weeks after it was due. It was preceded by the enactment of FY2023 full-year annual appropriations (P.L. 117-328) on December 29, 2022, about three months into the fiscal year. The delay of the budget submission allowed the FY2023 funding amounts in the budget materials generally to reflect the annual appropriations as enacted in late December.¹

For FY2024, the discretionary spending levels in appropriations measures are enforceable by both statutory and procedural means. Statutory budget enforcement is through the discretionary spending limits in the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (BBEDCA; P.L. 99-177), as amended. These statutory limits are enforced through sequestration, which is largely across-the-board reductions made to the category of spending that is in excess of the limit (defense or nondefense), to eliminate the excess spending.² Procedural budget enforcement is primarily associated with the budget resolution, which provides a process for the House and Senate to agree on budgetary targets ahead of consideration of spending and revenue legislation. These targets are enforced through points of order.

Statutory Budget Enforcement in FY2024

The statutory limits on discretionary spending that were in effect for the FY2024 funding cycle were enacted as part of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 (FRA; P.L. 118-5) on June 3, 2023.³ (Prior to the FRA, statutory limits on discretionary spending had been in effect between FY2012 and FY2021, but had expired at the end of FY2021.⁴) The FRA amended the BBEDCA to provide limits on defense discretionary (all spending under budget function 050) and nondefense discretionary (all other spending) for FY2024 and FY2025.⁵ Nearly all of the funding in the THUD bill is subject to the nondefense limit. The statutory limit on nondefense discretionary spending for FY2024 is $703.65 billion. This is a $40.2 billion (-5%) reduction relative to FY2023 enacted nondefense discretionary funding, when accounting for Congressional Budget Office (CBO) scorekeeping, and prior to any adjustments to the limits pursuant to BBEDCA authorities.⁶

Procedural Budget Enforcement in FY2024

The budget resolution process dates back to the Congressional Budget Act of 1974. It is used each year to impose a limit on total discretionary spending available to the appropriations committees (commonly referred to as a 302(a) allocation) and, subsequently, limits on spending under the jurisdiction of each appropriations subcommittee (referred to as 302(b) suballocations).⁷

As of the cover date of this report, there was no House or Senate action on a FY2024 budget resolution. For the purposes of providing 302(a) allocations and budgetary aggregates for the consideration of FY2024 appropriations, as well as other matters that would have been traditionally associated with the budget resolution, the FRA directed the chairs of the House Budget Committee and Senate Budget Committee to enter those amounts into the Congressional Record as soon as practicable. These were published in the Senate on June 21, 2023, but were not published in the House.⁸

Generally, the next step in the appropriations process is for each of the appropriations committees to adopt suballocations from the total amount allocated to them. These 302(b) suballocations provide a limit on current-year (i.e., FY2024) appropriations within each subcommittee's jurisdiction and incorporate any applicable scorekeeping adjustments made by CBO.⁹ On June 15, 2023, the House Appropriations Committee voted to report its initial suballocations for all 12 bills, including THUD (33-27).¹⁰ Subsequently, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to report its suballocations on June 22, 2023 (15-13);¹¹ they were subsequently amended several times.¹²

Table 1 shows the suballocation to the THUD Subcommittees, compared to the applicable FY2023 enacted level, the President's FY2024 budget request, and FY2024 enacted figures.

FY2024 THUD Appropriations Process

The following summarizes FY2024 appropriations actions; Table 2 tracks FY2024 THUD funding at the bill title level.

President's Budget

As noted earlier, the President's Budget request to Congress was submitted on March 9, 2023. For the agencies that comprise the THUD budget, it proposed the following:

• $27.9 billion in discretionary funding for DOT, which is 3.1% less than enacted for FY2023. The budget also included $79.4 billion in mandatory funding, for an overall DOT total of $107.3 billion (+0.8% compared to FY2023). (DOT will also receive an additional $36.8 billion outside the FY2024 appropriation process from Division J of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act [IIJA].)
• $70.6 billion in net budget authority—which accounts for savings from offsetting receipts and collections, which is 21% more than the comparable FY2023 non-emergency total and 14% more when accounting for the emergency funding for regular program activities. In terms of gross appropriations (not accounting or offsets or rescissions), there is $73.3 billion in gross new appropriations for HUD, which is 7.0% more than enacted for FY2023. However, the FY2023 appropriations law also included $3.6 billion in emergency funding to support regular HUD program activities. When accounting for those funds, the FY2024 request is 1.6% more than FY2023.
• $453 million for the THUD related agencies, 7.9% more than FY2023.

House Action

On July 24, 2023, the House Appropriations Committee reported its FY2024 THUD appropriations bill, following subcommittee markup on July 12. H.R. 4820, as reported, proposed $144.6 billion in total funding—$65.2 billion in discretionary funding—for THUD in FY2024, including the following:

• $21.6 billion in discretionary funding for DOT, which is 24.9% less than FY2023. H.R. 4820 also included $79.3 billion in mandatory funding, for an overall DOT total of $100.9 billion (-5.1% compared to FY2023).
• $68.2 billion in net budget authority for HUD, which is an increase of 17.3% above the comparable FY2023 non-emergency total and a 10.4% increase when accounting for emergency funding for regular program operations. Excluding savings from offsets and rescissions, H.R. 4820 proposed $71.5 billion in gross appropriations to fund HUD's programs and activities; that is an increase of 4.3% above the FY2023 non-emergency total and a 0.9% decrease when accounting for emergency funding provided in FY2023 for regular program operations.
• $452 million for the THUD related agencies, 7.8% more than FY2023.
• A rescission of $25.0 billion in funding from the Department of the Treasury's Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Floor consideration of H.R. 4820 began on November 6, following Rules Committee action on November 2; proceedings were suspended without resolution on November 7.

Senate Action

On July 20, the Senate Appropriations Committee reported its FY2024 THUD appropriations bill, S. 2437. The text of that legislation was incorporated into a three-bill spending package and passed by the full Senate on November 1 (H.R. 4366). It included $167.5 billion in total regular funding—including $88.1 billion in regular discretionary budget authority—as well as $10.8 billion in emergency funding for THUD in FY2024. It proposed the following:

• $28.0 billion in non-emergency net discretionary funding for DOT, which is 2.7% less than FY2023, but 30% more than H.R. 4820. Including mandatory funding, the overall proposed DOT total was $107.4 billion (1.0% more than FY2023 and 6.4% more than H.R. 4820). Additionally, the Senate bill proposed $469 million in emergency discretionary funding for regular program operations at the FAA.
• $59.7 billion in net budget authority for HUD, which is 2.6% more than FY2023 and 12.4% less than H.R. 4820. Excluding savings from offsets and rescissions, S. 2437 proposed $62.7 billion in gross regular (non-emergency) appropriations for HUD, a decrease of 8.6% relative to FY2023 and a decrease of 12.4% relative to H.R. 4820. As in FY2023, S. 2437 proposed additional emergency-designated funding ($10.4 billion) to support HUD's regular program activities. When accounting for these emergency funds, S. 2437 included $73.0 billion in gross appropriations for HUD in FY2024, which is 1.2% more than FY2023 and 2.1% more than H.R. 4820.
• $438 million for the THUD related agencies (4.3% more than FY2023; 3.2% less than H.R. 4820).

Continuing Resolutions

Because full-year appropriations were not enacted before the start of the fiscal year, Congress passed and the President signed a series of continuing resolutions (CRs) to fund the government—including those agencies typically funded under the THUD bill—until final enactment of full-year appropriations.

• The first CR extended funding through November 17, 2023 (P.L. 118-15). It generally funded agencies at their FY2023 levels, with some anomalies addressing technical budget issues. The CR also extended the federal aviation program's authorization, which was scheduled to expire on October 1, 2023, through December 31, 2023. That date was further extended, through March 8, 2024, by the Airport and Airway Extension Act of 2023, Part II (P.L. 118-34).
• A second CR was enacted on November 16, 2023 (P.L. 118-22). It extended the term of the prior CR through January 19, 2024, for four appropriation bills, including THUD; and through February 2, 2024, for the remaining eight bills.
• A third CR was signed into law on January 19, 2024, which extended funding for four appropriations bills, including THUD, through March 1, 2024; and for the remaining eight bills through March 8, 2024 (P.L. 118-35).
• The fourth and final CR was signed into law on March 1, 2024 (P.L. 118-40). It extended funding for THUD and the three other bills with funding slated to expire that day through March 8, 2024 (and the remaining eight bills through March 22, 2024).

Final Action

On March 9, 2024, the FY2024 Consolidated Appropriations Act was signed into law (P.L. 118-42), following passage by the House on March 6 and the Senate on March 8. The law provides full FY2024 funding for six bills, including THUD (Division F). It contains the following:

• $27.0 billion in non-emergency net discretionary funding for DOT, which is 6.1% less than FY2023, about 25% more than was proposed in the House Appropriations Committee bill, and 3.5% less than was proposed by the Senate. Including mandatory funding, the overall DOT total is $106.4 billion (essentially equal to FY2023).
• $62.1 billion in regular (non-emergency) net budget authority for HUD, which is 6.7% more than FY2023, about 9% less than proposed by the House Appropriations Committee, and 4% more than proposed by the Senate. This net total reflects $67.7 billion in gross regular (non-emergency) appropriations for HUD (which is a decrease of 1.1% relative to FY2023) and $5.7 billion in savings from offsets and rescissions. The amount of savings from offsets and rescissions is 47% less than FY2023, but more than double what was estimated for the House Appropriations Committee and Senate bills, as a result of scoring instructions from the Budget committees. Additionally, as in FY2023 and proposed in the Senate, the final law provides emergency funding ($8 billion) to support HUD's regular program activities. When accounting for these emergency funds, the law provides $75.7 billion in gross appropriations for HUD in FY2024, which is 5% more than FY2023, nearly 6% more than the House Appropriations Committee bill, and 3.7% more than the Senate.
• $428 million for the THUD related agencies (1.9% more than FY2023, 5.4% less than H.R. 4820, and 2.3% less than the Senate).

Department of Transportation

DOT operates the nation's air traffic control system; regulates aviation, commercial trucking, and motor vehicle safety; and provides grants to support aviation, highway, transit, and passenger rail infrastructure as well as highway, maritime, and pipeline safety.

The majority of DOT's annual funding is established by two periodic authorization acts, one for surface transportation programs and one for aviation programs. Most of the funding for the programs in those acts is drawn from the DOT Highway Trust Fund and the Aviation and Airways Trust Fund, respectively. Highway Trust Fund revenues come largely from fuel taxes and increasingly from transfers from the general fund of the Treasury. Aviation and Airways Trust Fund revenues come largely from taxes on passenger tickets and aviation fuel and some general fund money.

Most of the funding drawn from the Highway Trust Fund, and a portion of the funding drawn from the Aviation and Airways Trust Fund, is in the form of contract authority, a type of budget authority that is considered mandatory, rather than discretionary, and thus does not count against the THUD bill's 302(b) suballocation. Thus, while DOT's discretionary appropriation for FY2024 was $27 billion, the agency also received $79 billion in new mandatory funding from its trust funds, for a total of $106 billion in new budget authority, roughly equal to FY2023. DOT also received an additional $37 billion in advance appropriations for FY2024 from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (P.L. 117-58), for a grand total of $143 billion in newly available funding for FY2024, about the same as in FY2023. Table 3 provides detailed appropriations information for DOT accounts and selected sub-accounts, comparing FY2023 enacted to FY2024 requested, proposed, and enacted.

Major Differences Between House and Senate Proposed Funding

The House Appropriations Committee-passed bill (hereinafter, "House Committee-passed bill") would have provided $100.9 billion in total funding for DOT, 5.1% ($5.4 billion) below the FY2023 level and 6.4% ($6.9 billion) below the Senate FY2024 level. The major difference in funding between the House Committee-passed bill and Senate-passed bill came in the discretionary portion of DOT's budget: the House Committee-passed bill would have provided $21.6 billion in new appropriations, 24% ($6.8 billion) less than the Senate bill (including emergency-designated funding) and 25% ($7.3 billion) less than the comparable FY2023 enacted amount.

The final FY2024 appropriations law provides nearly the same amount of total funding (mandatory plus discretionary) for DOT ($106.37 billion) when compared to FY2023 ($106.35 billion), when excluding emergency appropriations. The enacted bill provides 25% ($5.413 billion) more in net new discretionary appropriations than the House Committee-passed bill proposed and 6.8% ($1.915 billion) less than the Senate proposed, when excluding emergency appropriations.

Four budget items accounted for most of the difference between the House committee and Senate discretionary funding:

• The National Infrastructure Investments account provides funding for the RAISE Grant program (49 U.S.C. §6702), a competitive discretionary grant program under which states, localities, and other entities can apply for funding for local highways and bridges, public transportation, freight and passenger rail, port infrastructure, and bicycle and pedestrian improvements. Also within this account is the National Infrastructure Project Assistance program (49 U.S.C. §6701), known as the Mega Grant program, which provides grants for nationally or regionally significant highway, transit, rail, port, or multimodal projects. The President's FY2024 budget requested a 50% increase over FY2023 enacted levels for National Infrastructure Investments dedicated to Mega program grants ($1.2 billion requested, compared to $800 million in FY2023). The House Committee-passed bill contained no new funding for this account. The House Committee report cited the availability of IIJA funding ($2.5 billion in FY2024). The Senate proposed $800 million dedicated to RAISE Grants. The final FY2024 enacted amount was $345 million.
• The Highway Infrastructure Program provides funding to states for programs administered by FHWA. For FY2024, the House Committee-passed bill contained $1.362 billion a 60% decrease in funding from the FY2023 enacted level of $3.418 billion. The House Committee report cited the availability of IIJA funding in FY2024 for similar purposes. The Senate-passed bill contained additional funding in FY2024 of $2.047 billion. The enacted FY2024 funding level of $2.225 billion was 8.7% more ($178 million) than the level proposed by the Senate, and $1.2 billion less (-35%) than provided in FY2023.
• Amtrak grants provide funding to Amtrak for intercity passenger rail infrastructure, equipment, maintenance and operating subsidies. The President's FY2024 budget requested a 25% increase in discretionary funding for the Amtrak account over enacted FY2023 funding ($,3.068 billion requested compared to $2.453 billion in FY2023), whereas the House Committee-passed bill contained $0.876 billion and the Senate-passed bill contained $2.454 billion. The FY2024 enacted amount was $2.428 billion. Under the IIJA, the Amtrak grants account is also slated to receive $4.4 billion annually in additional appropriations for FY2024 through FY2026.

The Capital Investment Grant Program provides funding for transit infrastructure projects popularly known as New Starts, Small Starts, and Core Capacity. For FY2024, the House Committee passed an 82% reduction in funding for this account below the FY2023 enacted funding level. In H.Rept. 118-154, the House Committee noted that $402 million in unallocated funding from the Consolidated Appropriations Act, FY2022 (P.L. 117-103) and the advance appropriations for the account from the IIJA would sufficiently fund projects that anticipate grant agreements in FY2024. The President requested a 29% increase in funding for FY2024 above the FY2023 enacted level. The Senate-passed bill contained an 11% increase for FY2024 above the FY2023 enacted level. The FY2024 enacted funding level nearly matches the FY2023 enacted level.

Additional Funding for FY2024 Provided in the IIJA

DOT received $184.1 billion in additional appropriations for many DOT programs in Division J, Title VIII, of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA; P.L. 117-58; also referred to as the bipartisan infrastructure law or BIL). These funds were appropriated in FY2022, but were divided into equal portions ($36.8 billion) that become available each year of the authorization period (FY2022-FY2026) for certain DOT programs authorized in Divisions A-C of the IIJA. The $36.8 billion in additional annual funding is more than DOT typically received in annul discretionary appropriations. For some agencies within DOT, this additional funding represents a relatively small addition to their regular annual funding level (e.g., $9.5 billion on top of $62.3 billion for FHWA); for other agencies, the additional funding is greater than the regular annual funding level (e.g., $13.2 billion on top of $3.0 billion for FRA). Table 4 shows discretionary, mandatory, and IIJA funding to provide an estimation of the total amount of FY2024 funding available by DOT administration.

Department of Housing and Urban Development

Overview

HUD is the nation's housing agency. The programs and activities it administers are designed primarily to address housing problems faced by households with very low incomes or other special housing needs, and to expand access to homeownership.¹³ The largest share of HUD's budget is devoted to its rental assistance programs: Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers; project-based rental assistance via Section 8, Section 202, and Section 811; and public housing. These programs, which serve over 4.6 million households, provide subsidies to allow low-income recipients to pay below-market, income-based rent.

Two flexible block grant programs—the HOME Investment Partnerships grant program and the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program—help states and local governments finance a variety of housing and community development activities designed to serve low-income families. Indian tribes receive their own direct housing and community development grants through the Native American Housing Block Grant and Indian Community Development Block Grant programs.

Other more specialized grant programs help communities meet the needs of homeless persons (through the Homeless Assistance Grants, namely the Continuum of Care and Emergency Solutions Grants programs), including those living with HIV/AIDS (through the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS program). Additional programs fund fair housing enforcement activities and lead-based paint hazard identification and remediation, along with other healthy homes initiatives.

HUD's Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insures mortgages made by lenders to homebuyers with low down payments and to developers of multifamily rental buildings containing relatively affordable units. FHA collects fees from borrowers with FHA-insured mortgages, which are used to sustain its insurance funds. The Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA) is also a part of HUD and it guarantees securities made up of federally insured or guaranteed mortgages.

FY2024 HUD Appropriations

Table 5 provides detailed appropriations information for HUD accounts and selected sub-accounts, comparing FY2023 enacted to FY2024.

Selected FY2024 HUD Appropriations Topics

Declining FHA Receipts

From FY2023 to FY2024, CBO estimated that the amount of offsetting receipts from HUD's Federal Housing Administration Mutual Mortgage Insurance (MMI) Fund declined by nearly $7 billion dollars, or almost 85%, to less than $1 billion in savings. This is a steeper decline than initially estimated by the President's FY2024 budget request to Congress; the President's budget estimated that FHA's MMI Fund would generate about half of what was estimated for FY2023 (just under $3.5 billion in savings).¹⁴

As noted earlier, these receipts generally serve to offset the cost of providing new appropriations for HUD's programs and activities for budget enforcement purposes. As a result, it would require an additional nearly $7 billion in new appropriations to provide the same amount of funding for HUD's programs and activities in FY2024 as was provided in FY2023 (not accounting for cost increases related to inflation). This decline presented a particular challenge for the appropriations process in light of lower overall discretionary spending levels in FY2024 under the terms of the FRA (as discussed earlier, see "Statutory Budget Enforcement in FY2024").

The amount of FHA receipts available each year is estimated by CBO based on assumptions about the amount and performance of FHA-insured mortgages issued that year, as well as the fees paid by borrowers. The decline in estimated receipts in FY2024 was largely driven by changes in economic projections, such as house prices and interest rates, which affect expected loan volume and credit subsidy rates. A HUD decision to reduce the fees charged to FHA borrowers¹⁵ also contributed to the decline.

For the purposes of the final FY2024 appropriations agreement for THUD, the House and Senate Budget Committees directed CBO to use the Administration's estimates of offsetting receipts for FHA's Mutual Mortgage Insurance program instead of using their own estimates, as has been past practice. According to CBO

As a result of that direction, CBO's estimate of spending under the jurisdiction of the Subcommittee on Transportation and Housing and Urban Development includes an additional offset of -$2,760 million.¹⁶

Emergency-Designated Funding for Rental Assistance Renewals

Among the largest expenses in HUD's budget are the annual costs of renewing rental assistance payments for the more than 3 million families who are served by the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher and project-based rental assistance programs. The renewal costs of these two programs—funded by the Tenant-Based Rental Assistance (TBRA) and Project-Based Rental Assistance (PBRA) accounts, respectively—generally account for more than half of the total new funding for HUD's programs and activities each year.¹⁷

As illustrated in Figure 1, the FY2023 appropriations law funded rental assistance renewal costs for these two programs using a combination of regular appropriations (provided in Division L) and supplemental emergency-designated funding (provided in Division N). Nearly 9% of the total funding for rental assistance renewal costs in the TBRA and PBRA accounts in FY2023 was provided as emergency designated spending, and therefore not subject to regular discretionary spending limits, including the THUD subcommittee's 302(b) allocations.

While neither the President's budget nor H.R. 4820 proposed using emergency-designated funding for rental assistance renewal costs in FY2024, as illustrated in Figure 1, the Senate bill proposed to fund a larger share of rental assistance renewal expenses using emergency funding than in FY2023. Nearly a quarter of rental assistance renewal funding would have been provided as emergency designated spending under the Senate bill.

The final FY2024 appropriations act included more emergency designated spending for rental assistance renewal funding than was provided in FY2023, but less, overall, than was proposed by the Senate bill. Over 18% of all renewal funding is designated as an emergency requirement in FY2024, accounting for more than 21% of renewal funding for the Housing Choice Voucher program in the TBRA account and nearly 13% of project-based Section 8 renewal funding in the PBRA account.

Figure 1. Rental Assistance Renewal Funding

Source: FY2023 Enacted figures are taken from the Comparative Statement of New Budget Authority table, as published in H.Rept. 118-154, beginning on page 410. FY2024 Senate figures are taken from the Comparative Statement of New Budget Authority table, as published in S.Rept. 118-70, beginning on page 219. Final FY2024 enacted figures are taken from the Comparative Statement of New Budget Authority tables published in the Explanatory Statement accompanying H.R. 4366 as passed by the House and the Senate, as well as the text of the Explanatory Statement and bill, all available in the March 5, 2024, Congressional Record for Division F. Some figures have been adjusted from the source material for comparability.

Program Eliminations and Reductions in H.R. 4820

The total overall new funding for HUD programs and activities—or gross appropriations—proposed by H.R. 4820 was lower than was provided in FY2023 (-1%), when accounting for emergency-designated funds. This may be, in part, because H.R. 4820 did not use emergency designations to offset some of the cost of new appropriations as was done in FY2023 and proposed by S. 2437 (see the "Emergency-Designated Funding for Rental Assistance Renewals" section of this report), particularly in light of the decline in offsetting receipts in FY2024 (see the "Declining FHA Receipts" section of this report) and the lower 302(b) allocation for FY2024 relative to FY2023 (see Table 1).

To achieve this reduction in gross appropriations, H.R. 4820 proposed funding increases to maintain current services in the primary rental assistance programs (+2.9% for the TBRA account and +6.1% for the PBRA account), but proposed reduced funding for other programs and activities. Slated for particularly large reductions were the following:

• The Choice Neighborhoods account, which would have received no funding in FY2024 (it received $350 million in FY2023) under the House Committee-passed bill. This account provides competitive grants to fund the substantial rehabilitation of distressed public housing or other HUD-assisted multifamily properties.
• The final FY2024 enacted law included $75 million for Choice Neighborhoods, which is half of what was proposed by the Senate and a 79% reduction relative to FY2023.
• The HOME program, which would have been cut from $1.5 billion in FY2023 to $500 million in FY2024 (-66.7%) under the House Committee-passed bill. This program provides formula grants to states and localities to be used for affordable housing purposes. H.Rept. 118-154 noted that the HOME program received $5 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 for specific rental housing activities,¹⁸ and that only 1% of those funds had been spent.
• The final FY2024 enacted law included $1.25 billion for HOME, a 17% reduction relative to FY2023 and the Senate proposal, but more than twice the amount proposed by the House Committee-passed bill.
• The Section 202 and Section 811 accounts, which were proposed to be cut by 15.1% and 42.2%, respectively. These programs fund the development of rental housing and provision of rental assistance for persons who are elderly or have disabilities. H.Rept. 118-154 noted that the amounts provided would be sufficient to maintain existing rental assistance contracts, but would not fund construction of new units. It further noted that both programs had large balances of new construction funding from prior years and directs the Secretary to expeditiously award those funds.
• The final FY2024 enacted law funded these accounts at the House Committee proposed levels.

General Provisions

Each year the THUD appropriations act includes dozens of General Provisions (GPs) for HUD, which involve administrative guidance on how funding provided in the act should and should not be used and, in some cases, amendments to laws that govern the agency's programs and activities. Many of these GPs are carried over from year to year, but some new GPs are generally added each year. Some of the new GPs considered and/or enacted during the FY2024 appropriations cycle are discussed below.

Rental Assistance Demonstration Expansion

Section 231 of the final FY2024 appropriations law included several amendments to the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD), including extending the authority for RAD from 2024 until 2029, addressing partial conversions under Section 18 authority, and authorizing the conversion of certain Section 811 rental assistance contracts under RAD. Similar provisions were requested by the President and included in H.R. 4820 (§232) and S. 2437 (§239).

New Nonrecurring Expenses Fund Account

Section 235 of the FY2024 final appropriations act authorizes the creation of a new nonrecurring expenses fund, as requested in the President's FY2024 budget request and included in H.R. 4820 (§237) and S. 2437 (§240). The account will receive transfers of unobligated balances of expiring discretionary funding from FY2024 and thereafter and the funds will be available until expended for capital needs of the department.

Contract Administrators

Section 237 of the enacted THUD appropriations law includes a provision similar to a provision in FY2023 and included in H.R. 4820 that prohibits HUD from using funding in the bill or in prior acts to issue a solicitation or accept bids on a solicitation substantially equivalent to a draft solicitation HUD published in July 2022. HUD has been unsuccessfully attempting to rebid the performance-based contract administrator contracts it uses to help manage the PBRA program for more than a decade. In the FY2024 budget request, the Administration sought a provision, which was included in S. 2437 (§251) that would have authorized the department to use cooperative agreements in lieu of procurement contracts when making performance-based contract administrator awards for the PBRA program. While this authority was not included in the final law, the explanatory statement notes, "the agreement recognizes that HUD faces a complicated task of developing new PBCA arrangements before the existing agreements expire" and directs the agency to develop any requests for necessary legislative changes in consultation with stakeholders and the House and Senate authorizing and appropriations committees.¹⁹

Moving to Work Contract Extension

Section 241 of the enacted THUD appropriations law extends the term of certain existing Moving to Work agreements from FY2028 through FY2038. This provision was not included in the President's budget request or in the House Committee-passed bill. A provision to extend the contracts through FY2043 was included in S. 2437 (§252).

Continuum of Care Awards

Section 242 of the enacted THUD appropriations law allows HUD to provide two-year funding award competitions for Continuum of Care (CoC) grants. The CoC program is the largest competitive grant program in the government and it funds, via local providers, various forms of housing assistance and related services for persons who are experiencing homelessness. This provision was not included in the general provisions portion of the President's FY2024 budget request²⁰or the House Committee-passed bill, but was included in S. 2437 (§253).

Housing Choice Voucher Waivers

Section 243 of the FY2024 enacted THUD funding bill authorizes the HUD Secretary to issue waivers of various program requirements in administering certain special purpose vouchers (Family Unification Program vouchers and mainstream vouchers for persons with disabilities). This provision was not included in the President's FY204 budget request or the House Committee-passed bill, but was included in S. 2437 (§254).

Other Provisions, Not Enacted

A number of provisions proposed by the President, in the House Committee-passed bill and/or Senate-passed bill were not included in the final law. Among others, these proposed provisions were not included in the final appropriations law:

• a statutory amendment to allow GNMA to securitize Section 542(c) multifamily risk-sharing loans made by housing finance agencies and insured by FHA (requested in the President's FY2024 budget);
• a new statutory authorization for HUD to make direct loans to support distressed PBRA properties (requested in the President's FY2024 budget);
• a sunset of the existing Moderate Rehabilitation program to facilitate RAD conversion of the remaining properties (requested in the President's FY2024 budget);
• a prohibition on the provision of federal funding to local jurisdictions that refuse to comply with federal requests for advance notice of release of a particular alien in local custody and a similar provision in Title IV of the bill, prohibiting the use of funds in contravention of Section 642 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (included in the House Committee-passed bill [§432]);
• a provision to make previously appropriated funds available for direct support for certain small properties undergoing RAD conversion (included in the Senate-passed bill [§241]);
• guidance on the treatment of rent incentives in the Jobs-Plus public housing program (included in the Senate-passed bill, [§243]);
• several provisions related to Native American housing programs (some included in the House committee bill [§§238-240] and some included in the Senate-passed bill [§§245-247]);²¹ and
• restrictions on residential Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing for properties with mortgages insured or guaranteed by HUD (included in the Senate-passed bill [§248-§250]).²²

THUD Related Agencies

The annual THUD appropriations bills generally provide funding for seven independent agencies that undertake activities related to transportation and/or housing.

• The U.S. Access Board is an independent federal agency designed to coordinate other federal agencies to promote accessible design and the development of accessibility guidelines and standards to ensure access to federally funded public infrastructure for persons with disabilities.²³
• The Federal Maritime Commission is an independent federal agency charged with regulating U.S. ocean commerce.²⁴
• The Amtrak Inspector General is an independent organization charged with providing oversight of Amtrak's programs and operations.²⁵
• The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigates accidents, crashes, and other events in transportation.²⁶
• The Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation (NeighborWorks America) is a congressionally chartered nonprofit that supports a network of community organizations that provide affordable housing, financial counseling, and resident engagement.²⁷
• The Surface Transportation Board is an independent federal agency that is "the economic regulation of various modes of surface transportation, primarily freight rail."²⁸
• The Interagency Council on Homelessness is an independent federal agency charged with coordinating the federal response to homelessness.²⁹

As shown in Table 6, most of the related agencies funded in the THUD bill received level or increased funding from FY2023 in the final FY2024 THUD appropriations act. One agency received a funding decrease; NeighborWorks received a funding cut of $12 million (7.1%).

Since FY2019, appropriations acts had specified that NeighborWorks was to use a certain amount of funding (between $1 million and $4 million, depending on the year) for the promotion and development of shared equity housing models. The Senate Committee-passed bill would have provided $2 million for this purpose, while the House Committee-passed bill did not direct any funding to be used specifically for shared equity housing. The final FY2024 THUD appropriations act does not specify a set-aside of NeighborWorks funding for shared equity housing, though the explanatory statement notes that the agreement "supports NeighborWorks in its efforts to continue to advance shared equity models" and directs NeighborWorks to engage in certain activities related to shared equity housing.³⁰