The Honorable Mitch McConnell
Majority Leader
U.S. Senate
S-230, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Chuck Schumer
Minority Leader
United States Senate
S-221, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Speaker
U.S. House of Representatives
H-232, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Kevin McCarthy
Minority Leader
U.S. House of Representatives
H-204, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
Dear House and Senate Leaders:
As you enter the final negotiations on the current round of health and economic relief and recovery measures in response to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic, we are writing to express our support for several key emergency measures included in the House proposal for affected low- and moderate-income (LMI) families and communities, small businesses, nonprofits and consumers. While there are significant relief provisions in both bills, the House bill has funding levels and a number of critical provisions that would improve the relief and recovery response for LMI families, including larger direct payments to families and more food assistance, expanded unemployed and paid sick leave, additional grants and forgivable loans for small business, more assistance for nonprofits, better provisions on education and student debt, critical and comprehensive provisions on foreclosure, evictions, negative consumer credit reporting, debt collection practices and fair housing.
We urge you to include several smaller but essential provisions included in the House plan in any final deal:
- Non-essential rulemaking: In order to facilitate due process around federal rulemaking, we urge Congress to adopt a temporary halt to all rulemaking not related to COVID-19. With so much of the public, and particularly LMI families and businesses, consumed with the economic shock resulting from the Coronavirus, it is unfair to expect that they can also participate in open notice and comment periods unrelated to the national emergency.
- Small Businesses and Nonprofits: Both bills include essential provisions for small businesses and, in most cases, nonprofits. The House bill also includes a small business credit facility of zero-interest loans if the business does not terminate employees, with the loan becoming forgivable if the number of full-time employees is maintained one year later. Nonprofits should also be included in this provision and others benefiting small businesses. Many nonprofits are on the frontlines of relief and economic recovery efforts in their communities, they are major employers across the country and they are facing many of the same challenges that small businesses are.
- Housing Counseling: Following the last financial crisis, Congress recognized the critical role that HUD intermediaries play in helping households across the country manage financial decisions and recover. They also play essential roles following natural disasters, funded largely through HUD’s Office of Housing Counseling, but with support possible through the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Program if properly administered. Among other services, HUD intermediaries help families access public and private benefits that will facilitate the fastest economic recovery for the nation, including rental, foreclosure prevention and credit counseling, homeless assistance, and with upgrades in technology, many of these services can be delivered virtually.
- Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and more: The House bill also recognizes the key role of CDFIs in small finance and the recovery in LMI communities. Long after the nation has returned to work, school and play, many LMI communities will be grappling with the lingering economic impacts of COVID-19. CDFIs and small finance will be key to helping these communities recover over the short and medium-term. Targeted provision for the Minority Business Development Agency and the nation’s minority and women business centers will be key to ensure that targeted recovery efforts are made to minority- and women-owned enterprises.
Both the House and Senate bills include important increases in federal funding for housing and community development programs that will be key to recovery in local communities, but the funding levels included in the House bill will ensure that the recovery is as robust as possible for LMI communities and the most underserved segments across the country. We also want to applaud the recognition in both the House and Senate of the need to place limits on executive pay and corporate stock buybacks.
We applaud the Congress and the nation’s federal agencies for acting quickly and crafting proposals designed to reach every segment of a nation that will be challenged to recover from this unprecedented economic shock in the months, and perhaps, years to come. We urge Congressional negotiators to adopt the more favorable funding levels in the House stimulus proposal and ensure that key provisions are included to ensure that LMI families and communities, small businesses, nonprofits and the nation’s consumers can access these critical benefits, mitigate the economic fallout and recover quickly.
Sincerely,
National Groups
National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC)
Affordable Homeownership Coalition
Center for Community Progress
Center for Responsible Lending
NACEDA
National Housing Institute
National Housing Law Project
National Housing Resource Center
National Housing Trust
National NeighborWorks® Association
State Groups
727 Mgt. LLC
Affordable Homeownership Foundation
African Cultural Alliance of North America Inc (ACANA)
African Diaspora Directorate
Arizona Housing Coalition
Avenue
Beacon Development Group
Beneficial State Foundation
Bii Gii Wiin Community Development Loan Fund
Birmingham Business Resource Center
Black Hills Community Loan Fund, Inc
BLDG Memphis
Brighton Park Neighborhood Council
Building Alabama Reinvestment
California Coalition for Rural Housing
California Reinvestment Coalition
Can I Live, Inc
Ceiba
Center for Fair Housing, INc
Center for NYC Neighborhoods
Centre for Homeownership & Economic Development Corporation, Inc.
Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise
Chester Community Improvement Project
Chicago Community Loan Fund
Chicago Rehab Network
City of Toledo
Clarifi
Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development
Coastal Enterprises, Inc.
Columbus Empowerment Corporation
Communities United For Action
Community Vision, Inc.
Consolidated Credit Solutions, Inc.
Credit Builders Alliance
EAH Housing
Equal Voice Action
Fair Housing Rights Center in Southeastern Pennsylvania
Frameworks Community Development Corporation
Friends of the African Union
Georgia Advancing Communities Together, Inc.
Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance (GNOHA)
Grounded Solutions Network
Habitat for Humanity of Michigan
Havenwoods Economic Development Corp.
Hawai’i Alliance for Community-Based Economic Development (HACBED)
Homes on the Hill, CDC
Home Repair Resource Center
Hope Through Divine Intervention
Housing Oregon
HousingNOLA
HousingWorks RI
Lafayette Neighborhood Housing Services, Inc. dba HomesteadCS
Layton Boulevard West Neighbors
Legacy Foundation
LISC Greater Kansas City
Local First Arizona (c6)
Local First Arizona Foundation (c3)
Louisville Urban League
Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition
Massachusetts Association of CDCs
Massachusetts Communities Action Network (MCAN)
Metropolitan Milwaukee Fair Housing Council
Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing and Opportunity Council
Miami Dade Affordable Housing Foundation, Inc
Multi-Cultural Development Center
Nehemiah Project Community Development Corporation
New American Development Center
New Jersey Citizen Action
North Carolina Housing Coalition
NW HomeStart, Inc
Ohio CDC Association
Old North St. Louis Restoration Group
Omaha 100 Incorporated
PathStone Enterprise Center
Peoples’ Self-Help Housing
Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group
Pride Through Empowerment Foundation, Inc
Proud Ground
Real Choice Initiative
Recon Foundation
River City Housing
Self-Help Enterprises
Solita’s House, Inc
Southeast Houston CDC
Southern Dallas Progress CDC
Southside Organizing Center
Southwest Neighborhood Housing Services
St. Petersburg Neighborhood Housing Services, Inc. dba Neighborhood Home Solutions
The Resurrection Project
U SNAP BAC Nonprofit Housing
Urban Land Conservancy
WAVE
