Members press to preserve emergency housing vouchers, public‑housing repairs during reconciliation markup

Lawmakers across the House Financial Services Committee used the reconciliation markup to press for more funding to address homelessness and the deteriorating condition of public housing, including emergency housing vouchers, an infusion into the public‑housing capital fund and continued support for green and resilient retrofits.

Representative Maxine Waters offered an amendment she described as protecting hundreds of families by renewing funding for emergency housing vouchers (EHV), a program created through the American Rescue Plan Act that Waters said has housed tens of thousands of households. “I sent a letter to you earlier this month asking that you join me in keeping hundreds of people in Arkansas housed by renewing funding for emergency housing vouchers,” Waters said. In her remarks she cited the $5,000,000,000 in ARPA funding that created the initial EHV program and told colleagues it had helped “house 71,000 homeless families since 2021.”

Representative Nydia Velasquez of New York offered amendment 021 to preserve the Green and Resilient Retrofit Program (GRRP) and to direct $90,000,000,000 to HUD’s public housing capital fund to eliminate the capital repair backlog. Velasquez described the funding need as addressing lead, mold, broken elevators and other conditions that threaten residents’ health and safety and said the investment would reduce utility costs and improve living conditions across public housing.

Opponents and procedural posture

Committee Republicans argued the committee print must achieve budgetary savings under the FY25 reconciliation instruction and said most GRRP grant money already has been awarded; committee leaders described the remaining amounts in the program as largely administrative funds that can be rescinded without affecting prior recipients. Several members moved to table or otherwise block amendments; the chair announced multiple voice‑vote defeats and ordered recorded votes for several of the housing amendments, which were postponed under committee rules.

What lawmakers said

- Representative Waters: “We have a unique opportunity to work together to end homelessness today,” she urged, describing children sleeping in cars and families unable to afford deposits and moving costs.

- Representative Velasquez: “Eliminating the capital repair backlog will continue to transition our nation’s public housing stock to energy efficiencies and address the rapidly growing health crisis faced by the 1.2 million households living in public housing units across the country,” she said in support of the $90 billion capital fund proposal.

Votes and next steps

Several housing amendments were rejected in voice votes where the chair announced the result as “nays have it,” and multiple members requested recorded votes. The clerk and the chair ordered those recorded votes and postponed the roll calls for later completion under committee rules. Committee staff said distribution issues slowed some amendment designations earlier in the day; members asked for timely, accurate distribution of amendment text for fair consideration.

Why it matters

Advocates and several Democrats argued that cutting funds or rescinding unobligated balances could reverse gains made by emergency housing vouchers and would leave thousands of families exposed to homelessness and housing instability. Committee Republicans said the markup’s purpose is narrowly budgetary under the reconciliation instruction and that many of the programs targeted for rescission were fully expended or administratively limited.