Washington Recap: September 2026

Sep 25

NAAHL, in partnership with the Center for Affordable Housing Lending, is pleased to provide this monthly recap of the top federal policy developments in affordable housing and community development. NAAHL Members receive breaking policy updates and additional policy resources directly; however, any partner can sign up for NAAHL alerts and the monthly Washington Recap here.

September brought several major developments across housing and community development policy. This month, NAAHL:

Advanced ROAD to Housing implementation, partnering with the Bipartisan Policy Center for a September 9 webinar and continuing to update our ROADmap Progress Tracker;
Mobilized around the proposed CRA rule, working with members and partners to assess potential impacts and prepare for the October 13 comment deadline; and
Tracked major CDFI Fund developments, including the announcement of long-awaited awards and the opening of the CY 2026 New Markets Tax Credit round.

Read on for these updates and other federal policy developments affecting NAAHL members.

NAAHL, Bipartisan Policy Center Host 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act Webinar

Over one thousand participants joined the National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders (NAAHL) and the Bipartisan Policy Center on September 9, for a timely discussion on what comes next now that the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act is law. Speakers examined the law's key reforms, critical implementation decisions ahead, and what it means for housing supply at the state and local level.

Watch the full webinar recording here.

NAAHL is continuing to track implementation through our ROADmap Progress Tracker, which covers 125+ agency actions required under the law and can be filtered by agency, action type, and stakeholder. Bookmark it at naahl.org/roadmap and check back for updates as agencies roll out their work.

CONGRESS

President Signs Bill Funding the Government Through December 11

On September 2, President Trump signed a continuing resolution (CR), a temporary stopgap extending government funding at current levels from the start of Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 on October 1, through December 11, avoiding any threat of government shutdown before the midterm elections. The CR also includes targeted funding, including for HUD’s Tenant-Based Rental Assistance program.

In addition, and of particular relevance to NAAHL members, the CR temporarily blocks implementation of an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) proposed rule that would make significant changes to how federal grants and other assistance are awarded, administered, and monitored. The pause is in effect until December 11--the duration of the CR.

Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) specifically emphasized this implementation pause as a key highlight of the CR in a statement applauding its passage. In July, Chair Collins sent a letter to OMB Director Vought expressing concerns about the proposed rule. Senate Appropriations Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) led a letter with the full Senate Democratic caucus calling for the proposed rule to be rescinded.

Appropriators from both parties have committed to keep working to find bipartisan agreement to fund the government beyond December 11. The House Appropriations Committee voted to send all twelve of the FY 2027 appropriations bills to the full House for consideration, including the bills that fund HUD and the CDFI Fund. The Senate Appropriations Committee has yet to release any FY 2027 funding bills.

See NAAHL’s budget chart for a more detailed breakdown of the funding levels for key programs.

Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee Advances CFPB and HUD Nominees

On September 17, the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee voted on a number of nominations, including the nomination of Brian Johnson to be the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The Committee voted along party lines, 13-11 to advance Mr. Johnson’s nomination to the Senate floor. Mark Paoletta has served as the acting director of the agency since August 1, when OMB Director Russell Vought’s term as CFPB Acting Director expired. Director Vought led a significant reduction in the agency’s staff during his tenure.

The Committee also advanced two HUD nominees: Irving Dennis to be chief financial officer of HUD, and Jeffrey Ledbetter to be inspector general of HUD. Both nominees were also advanced to the full Senate by party line votes of 13-11.

The Senate remains in session for one more week before adjourning for the November election, leaving the opportunity to advance some or all of these nominees.

ADMINISTRATION

Treasury

Treasury’s CDFI Fund Welcomes New Director

In August, Chris Miller was announced as the new Director of the CDFI Fund. He brings 20 years of experience operating and providing access to capital for small businesses. Most recently, Mr. Miller served as the chief financial officer of Three Roots Capital, a Certified CDFI and Community Development Entity based in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Treasury Announces FY 2025 and FY 2026 Awards for Multiple Programs

On September 15, Treasury announced awards for the FY 2025 CDFI Programs and Native American CDFI Assistance Programs, and the FY 2026 Bank Enterprise Award (BEA) and Small Dollar Loan (SDL) Programs. These funds were due to expire on September 30, 2026. While the BEA and SDL programs are labeled as FY 2026, their funds were appropriated for FY 2025.

In a departure from past practice, Treasury did not publish a list of awardees and instead directed applicants to check their Awards Management Information System (AMIS) accounts. Following an inadvertent notice to some awardees caused by a system error, awardees received award notifications in their AMIS accounts on September 22. A full list of awardees has not been published; however, awardee information is anticipated to be available on USAspending.gov.

The awards come amid litigation over delays in distributing congressionally appropriated CDFI Fund resources. In August, Inclusive Action for the City and CAMEO Network filed suit challenging the withholding of FY 2025 and FY 2026 CDFI Fund appropriations. On September 21, the Freedom Economy Business Association filed a separate lawsuit seeking to ensure FY 2025 funds are obligated before the September 30 deadline. Both cases argue that Treasury cannot allow congressionally appropriated funding to expire without being distributed; those claims remain before the courts.

NAAHL is closely tracking implementation of the awards, including the terms and conditions attached to the funding, and will continue to keep members informed as additional information becomes available.

CDFI Fund Opens CY 2026 Round of New Markets Tax Credit Program

This month, the CDFI Fund released the Notice of Allocation Availability (NOAA) for the calendar year (CY) 2026 round of the New Markets Tax Credit Program (NMTC Program). The NOAA makes $5 billion in tax credit allocation authority available for the CY 2026 round.

The application includes several changes from prior rounds, such as new provisions to encourage the development of for-sale, affordable housing for homeownership and a focus on “energy cost reduction” in place of a prior emphasis on “environmentally sustainable outcomes”. The application also removes prior minority-owned or minority-controlled criteria and adds language that the CDFI Fund will administer the program in accordance with the Constitution and federal law.

NMTC Allocation Application submissions are due on November 10, 2026.

Treasury Releases Proposed Rulemaking on Opportunity Zone Reporting

On September 11, the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released a proposed rule laying out the information that Qualified Opportunity Funds (QOFs) and the businesses they invest in will have to report to the government each year. The 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act made the Opportunity Zone program permanent, established recurring rounds of Opportunity Zone designations, and created enhanced incentives for investment in rural areas.

The proposed rule spells out reporting requirements for QOFs and Qualified Opportunity Zone Businesses, as well as for investors, and establishes penalties for failure to comply. As states move forward with the next round of Opportunity Zone designations, which will be in effect for the next 10 years, these reporting requirements will help shape how the impact of the program is measured going forward. Reliable reporting could provide policymakers and stakeholders with a clearer picture of where Opportunity Zone capital is flowing and the economic and housing outcomes associated with those investments. Comments are due by October 16.

HUD

Appeals Court Allows HUD Changes to Continuum of Care (CoC) Funding to Proceed

On September 16, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily lifted a lower court’s block on HUD seeking applications for CoC awards under a new policy framework. The new framework, laid out in a June 2026 Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), would direct funding toward transitional housing and supportive services and away from permanent supportive housing. The appeals court allowed HUD to proceed with the NOFO because HUD has limited time to award the funds. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 requires HUD to award the CoC funds by December 1, 2026. HUD reopened the NOFO with an application deadline of September 30.

Multiple state attorneys general and homelessness advocacy groups, such as the National Alliance to End Homelessness, sued HUD for these changes, which they say could put formerly homeless residents at risk of losing their housing.

HUD Limits Fair Housing Design and Construction Violation Complaints to One Year

On September 1, HUD issued new guidance applying a one-year statute of limitations to submit an administrative complaint to HUD related to the Fair Housing Act’s design and construction requirements for multifamily buildings. This guidance classifies the FHA violation as a discrete act, rather than a continual violation, and allows complaints within one year of when the certificate of occupancy is issued. This replaces portions of a 2013 joint HUD and DOJ statement that viewed the violation as continuous until it was resolved, allowing complaints at any time.

HUD Proposes Removing Disparate Impact from Title VI Regulation

On August 10, HUD published a proposal to update a pending rulemaking in order to remove references to disparate impact from both the Fair Housing Act and HUD’s regulation implementing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance. Local governments, nonprofits, and other organizations that receive federal funding are required to comply with Title VI. Since 1973, HUD regulations have prohibited recipients from using criteria or methods of administering federally assisted programs that have the effect of subjecting individuals to discrimination based on race, color, or national origin. The proposal would limit prohibited conduct under Title VI to intentional discrimination.

This proposal was published as a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking and supplements HUD’s January 14, 2026, notice of proposed rulemaking titled, HUD’s Implementation of the Fair Housing Act’s Disparate Impact Standard, which would rescind HUD’s Fair Housing Act disparate impact regulation. Both the original and supplemental proposal rulemaking implement the April 2025 executive order titled “Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy,” which states it is “the policy of the United States to eliminate the use of disparate-impact liability in all contexts to the maximum degree possible.” The executive order directs federal agencies to review and amend or repeal, as appropriate, rules or policies imposing disparate-impact liability. In December 2025, following this executive order, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a final rule to repeal disparate impact policies and regulations related to Title VI that apply to local governments and organizations that receive federal funding.

Neither the January 2026 proposed rule nor the supplemental proposal have been finalized. The supplemental notice reopens the public comment period, but only for comments on the supplemental information. The comment period ends on October 9.

HUD Releases then Withdraws Reorganization Plan

On September 4, HUD released notice of its intent to reorganize HUD and revise its headquarters and field operating model. The plan described the consolidating and streamlining of all of HUD’s offices but noted it does not propose any office closures or relocation of staff.

Notably, under the plan:

The Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity would combine its operations under a centralized management structure;
The Office of Public and Indian Housing would merge all responsibilities for public housing under one office and all voucher programs in another; and
The Office of Single Family Housing would transition the work of its Homeownership Centers (HOCs) from a geographic-based model to a function-based model, with three official HOC-designated offices, each with its own specialization.

This notice was withdrawn later that day, without explanation, and was not published in the Federal Register.

This reorganization plan would reshape HUD based on its current, significantly smaller staff. A reduction in the federal workforce across all agencies has been a key policy priority of this administration. HUD, through departures, retirements, and an aggressive Deferred Resignation Program, has lost a substantial number of staff.

FHFA

FHFA Updates Credit Score and Mortgage Insurance Policies to Address Housing Costs

This month, Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte made multiple policy announcements aimed at reducing the cost of homeownership. On September 4, Director Pulte directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) to purchase loans from all lenders underwritten using either the longstanding Classic FICO credit score or the newly approved VantageScore 4.0. Earlier this year, the Enterprises had begun purchasing loans underwritten with VantageScore 4.0 from a limited pool of lenders. Director Pulte also announced that FHFA was considering replacing the current “tri-merge” credit report requirement – which requires credit reports from each of the three large credit bureaus for each loan – with a “bi-merge” or even a single credit report requirement.

On September 15, Director Pulte also announced that he had directed Fannie Mae to allow mortgage servicers to tell homeowners when they were eligible to cancel their private mortgage insurance (PMI), a policy already in place at Freddie Mac. PMI is often required when homeowners make less than a 20% downpayment, and it adds a premium to their monthly payment. Borrowers can cancel PMI once they've built enough equity, but many don't know when they've reached that point and keep paying longer than necessary. Letting servicers alert borrowers could help homeowners lower their monthly costs earlier.

BANKING REGULATORS

CRA Proposed Rule Published, Comments Due October 13

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) proposed rule remains open for public comment until October 13. NAAHL continues to work closely with members and national partners to highlight the potential impacts of the proposal on affordable housing and community development.

To support those efforts, NAAHL will soon release additional resources, including fact sheets, an interactive map illustrating the impacts of proposed asset threshold changes, and a customizable comment letter template to make it easier for organizations to participate in the comment process.

Organizations can also join a national sign-on letter elevating how any changes to CRA should maintain meaningful affordable housing and community development outcomes.

OCC Issues Reduction-in-Force Notices

On September 16, the OCC issued reduction-in-force (RIF) notices to a number of employees. These RIFs follow staff reductions through buyout offers, which were first reported in June. The exact number of staff who received RIF notices is not known at this time, but initial reporting indicates that fewer than 50 people were let go and were primarily front office and public affairs staff. In June, Politico Pro reported that buyout offers were focused on the offices of the Chief National Bank Examiner, Enterprise Governance and the Ombudsman, management, and chief of staff.

According to the Office of Personnel Management, OCC’s headcount is around 2,600, which is down from more than 3,600 in 2024.

CONFIRMATIONS AND APPOINTMENTS

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

AWAITING FLOOR CONSIDERATION: Irving Dennis to be Chief Financial Officer
AWAITING FLOOR CONSIDERATION: Jeffrey Ledbetter to be Inspector General
NOMINATED: Matthew Jones to be an Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

Department of Treasury