Lifetime Citizen Portal Access — AI Briefings, Alerts & Unlimited Follows
Stakeholders ask Congress to raise Davis-Bacon trigger and ease Build America, Buy America rules for HOME projects
Loading...
Summary
Witnesses and committee members discussed raising the Davis-Bacon threshold (witnesses recommended 50 units or a $250,000 construction-contract threshold) and easing Build America, Buy America compliance for HOME-funded developments to lower costs and expand the pool of contractors.
Witnesses before the House subcommittee urged statutory changes to prevailing-wage and domestic-content rules that they said increasingly burden small projects that rely on HOME gap financing.
Multiple witnesses recommended raising the Davis-Bacon trigger from the existing 12-unit or low-dollar threshold to a 50-unit trigger so that many small and rural projects would not automatically be subject to prevailing-wage paperwork and compliance. Eric Oberdorfer of NARO said increasing the unit threshold to 50 "will help especially smaller communities" and recommended also raising the construction-contract threshold to $250,000 adjusted annually for inflation.
Habitat for Humanity's Ellen Woodward Potts and Mercy Housing's Tiffany Bohe said they support prevailing wages but warned the administrative burden and documentation associated with Davis-Bacon can put small contractors and small-business electricians and plumbers at a disadvantage. Potts noted many local contractors are sole proprietors or very small firms that struggle with heavy compliance paperwork.
On Build America, Buy America (BABA), witnesses said the domestic-content rules are well intentioned but argued the construction-materials supply chain has limited capacity and the rules can add cost and delay; NARO recommended exempting HOME-funded projects and some witnesses asked for clearer guidance and transitional rules so projects can proceed while domestic supply scales up. Representative Garcia pushed back strongly on allowing Buy America exemptions, saying she opposes weakening domestic procurement standards. Witnesses and members emphasized these proposals are to reduce administrative cost and delay rather than to eliminate worker protections or quality standards.
Committee members and witnesses also discussed an alternative approach of increasing dollar thresholds (e.g., $250,000 contracts) rather than changing unit-based triggers, to reduce the number of small projects subject to Davis-Bacon paperwork.
