This past month was marked by a slew of activity in Congress, including House and Senate testimony by Fed Chairman Jay Powell, the release of a budget and tax agreement by Senate Democrats, and a key Senate confirmation of Nellie Liang to be Undersecretary for Domestic Finance. Last week, MBA senior staff spoke at FHFA's listening session on a new radon testing standard that FHFA is considering.  Also last week, MBA along with 12 trade organizations submitted a coalition letter to HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge urging her to take action to address the substantial delays for FHA-backed financing for multifamily projects.

A group of Republican and Democratic Senators continue to work expeditiously to salvage a bipartisan infrastructure deal, with pressure intensifying on all side to wrap up negotiations in the coming days. While these efforts continue to test the White House and Congress, the outcome will set the stage for the next debate over President Biden ambitious $3.5 trillion spending package, a strictly partisan pursuit of far-reaching programs and services including child-care, tax breaks and health care. It would be paid for by increasing the corporate tax rate, among other provisions, and the tax rate on Americans earning more than $400,000 a year.

Looking ahead, MAA will remain essential to our robust efforts aiming to impact policy. The announcement of these proposals will quickly begin to emerge as legislative and regulatory policy items where YOU will have an opportunity to weigh in. 

We will need MAA to be louder and stronger than ever to ensure that Congress does not end up harming, more than helping, our industry with any changes that reduce support for capital formation and investment, or negatively affects consumers, particularly in the residential sector.
 

1. MBA and Members Speak at FHFA Radon Testing Listening Session

Last Wednesday, MBA's Mike Flood, SVP of Commercial and Multifamily, and Mike Fratantoni, SVP and Chief Economist, spoke at the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) listening session on a new radon testing standard that FHFA is considering. Many MBA members and industry professionals also spoke during the five-hour session.

• Why it matters: The new standard of 100% ground floor testing, with an additional 10% upper floor testing, is based on a biased study, is not risk-based, and would result in substantial delays in the GSEs' multifamily pipelines, while also increasing the cost of closing loans.
   
• What's next: MBA and other stakeholders will submit letters following up on remarks at the listening session. FHFA will consider input before making a final determination of its multifamily radon testing standards for the GSEs.
   

2. MBA-led Coalition Asks HUD Secretary Fudge to Address FHA Multifamily Processing Delays

On Thursday, MBA along with 12 trade organizations submitted a coalition letter to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Marcia Fudge urging her to take action to address the substantial delays now suffered by developers seeking Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-backed financing for multifamily projects. The recommended solutions include expediting the contracting process necessary for HUD to engage third-party resources to help with underwriting. In addition to the letter, during a House Financial Services Committee hearing with HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge on infrastructure, Rep. Roger Williams (R-TX) asked the Secretary about significant delays within the FHA multifamily program pipeline, including the wait time of six-to-twelve months before an application is assigned to an underwriter. A clip of this exchange can be found here.  

• Why it matters: Congressional questions and industry coalition letters can put more specific pressure on an agency like HUD to resolve issues garnering significant attention, including program delays and bottlenecks that impact the delivery of affordable housing. FHA multifamily financings are currently experiencing delays of greater than six months because of a shortage of available underwriters.
   
• What's next: MBA will continue to advocate for HUD to address this problem, and for Congress to provide sufficient HUD funding.

3. House Committee on Appropriations Advances HUD Funding Legislation during Markup

Last week, the House Committee on Appropriations considered several appropriations bills for fiscal year (FY) 2022, including one containing robust funding for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). MBA sent a letter to the Committee's leadership advocating for the industry's housing priorities, including urging them to provide HUD with the funding necessary to address the extended processing delays that are pervasive in the pipeline for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) multifamily and health care financing.

• Why it matters: The proposal contained substantial funding increases for FHA cybersecurity and information technology (IT) upgrades, FHA multifamily and health care credit authority, Ginnie Mae administrative expenses, and rental assistance.
   
• What's next: This markup is the first step toward eventual negotiations with Republicans (and the Senate) on a final spending package. With Congress unlikely to reach agreement to move all 12 appropriations bills before September 30, 2021, legislators must pass a stop-gap continuing resolution to keep the government operating beyond October 1, 2021.
   

MAA Call to Action

Monday, MAA launched a call to action asking advocates to contact Congress and urge them to oppose utilizing GSE guarantee fees ("g-fees") as a source of funding offsets in negotiations of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework (BIF). Prior to the call to action, MBA had led a coalition letter to lead Senate negotiators that outlined the opposition and subsequent detrimental impacts. Already, nearly 3,000 MAA members have sent over 10,500 messages to all 100 US Senators and 87% of the US House.

A special thank you to the following for leading the way on this issue! Below are the top 5 companies by action takers.

1. Fairway Independent Mortgage Inc. - 1,374
2. New American Funding - 618 
3. DHI Mortgage - 173 
4. Primary Residential Mortgage Inc. - 109 
5. First Heritage Mortgage - 38 

Add your voice TODAY by taking action to contact your elected officials to urge them not to use g-fees as a "pay-for" for either the BIF or the upcoming House/Senate budget resolutions.

Quarterly MAA Webinar

Join us today, Thursday, July 29 from 2:00-3:00pm ET for our free Quarterly MAA Webinar that will feature a legislative briefing on priority issues facing the industry and current MAA calls to action. MBA's Legislative and Political Affairs team will provide updates on how MBA has remained engaged with Congress and the administration, and preview issues that are likely to emerge in the coming months.

This webinar is free to all MAA members using the code: MAA2021. The link to register can be found here.