Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. ELLISON. Madam Chair, the budget for the Department of Housing and Urban Development we consider today does not meet our Nation's affordable housing problems.

If this budget passes, more than half of the renters will still pay more than one-third of their income for housing. If this budget passes, fewer than four in 10 low-income elderly will receive the housing assistance they are entitled to. If this budget passes, we will still only provide housing assistance to one in four families who are eligible--tens of thousands will continue to linger on waiting lists for an affordable rental apartment that will never arrive. If this budget passes, there will still be more than 11 million families, Madam Chairman, paying more than half of their income for rent and utilities. There will still be a significant gap between incomes and housing costs.

The HUD budget is tens of billions short in order to meet American families' housing needs. That is why my amendment replaces the mortgage interest deduction with a flat-rate 15 percent tax credit.

My amendment lowers the maximum amount of mortgage interest that can receive a tax offset from $1 million to $500,000. About 4 percent of homes in this country sell for more than $500,000.

My amendment dedicates the revenue generated from these changes to increasing our investments in affordable rental housing for extremely low-income families.

My amendment provides for housing for veterans who find themselves homeless. It provides housing for people who are elderly and people with disabilities who cannot find affordable appropriate housing. It provides money to repair public housing facilities to provide homes to low-income families with children, seniors, and people with disabilities. It funds the national housing trust fund, repairs public housing, provides thousands of new vouchers, and raises the rental assistance demonstration cap.

Unfortunately, my amendment will likely be ruled out of order today. Why? Because the rules set by the majority in the House refuse to allow any tax changes to pay for a change in the appropriated budget.

This technical decision made by the majority in this Congress is inconsistent with previous Congresses, which realized that money is fungible.

By refusing to allow tax changes to offset the cost of needed programs, Congress stacks the deck.

Congress preserves the generous tax benefits for most financially successful households while ensuring that there is never anywhere close to the level of affordable rental housing we need.

For every dollar we spend on housing programs through the appropriations side of the budget, we spend more than $3 on the tax side.

The mortgage interest deduction itself is more than twice as large as the entire HUD budget we consider today. Yet, the vast majority of the mortgage interest deduction benefit the top income quintile--about 80 percent of the benefit goes to 20 percent of the households.

I want to keep a tax benefit for homeownership. I want one that is more accessible and more generous to working families. Nearly half the homeowners with a mortgage do not benefit from the deduction. That is because almost half of the people who pay mortgage interest do not itemize. Only 5 percent of the homeowners with incomes of $50,000 take a deduction. Contrast the 5 percent of homeowners with incomes beneath $50,000 and the two-thirds of households with incomes above $125,000 who get a tax benefit. The flat rate credit will benefit about 16 million current homeowners who do not currently benefit from a deduction but who will benefit from a flat tax credit.

I know that my amendment will be ruled out of order today.

Madam Chair, I ask unanimous consent to withdraw my amendment.

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