Congress Reaches Deal to Fund Government - NCHV Hill Watch Update

Hill Watch: Congressional Leadership Reaches Deal for FY 2017 Spending 
House and Senate set to vote on measure this week
Sunday night, the leadership of the House and Senate announced an agreement on the particulars of a bill that would provide funding for the remaining portion of FY 2017 for the entirety of the federal government. This came after another in a long line of extensions was passed last week to give Congress more time to reach this deal. The House and Senate are both expected to consider the measure (H.R. 244) this week, and are expected to pass it. 
This proposed bill covers most of the federal government’s funding obligations, but not all. As we have discussed in Hill Watch before, Congress has already agreed on the funding levels for the operations of VA in FY 2017. This agreement covered many of the programs that we consider to be the pillar programs of the federal response to veteran homelessness.
This new funding agreement, H.R. 244, does provide some funding for our efforts to end veteran homelessness. Particularly, it governs the funding levels of the Homeless Veteran Reintegration Program (HVRP) and the HUD-funded vouchers of the HUD-VASH program.
The bill calls for an increased investment in the HVRP program of $6.891 million over last fiscal year, for a total investment in FY 2017 of $45,000,000. This was the halfway point between the negotiating positions taken by the House ($50 million) and the Senate ($40 million), both of which would have been increases over last year’s $38.109 million.
The bill also calls for an additional investment of roughly 5,000 vouchers into the HUD-VASH program, for a total of $40 million in FY 2017. The new $40 million investment adds to the stock of pre-existing HUD-VASH vouchers, and NCHV is pleased to see that Congress agrees continued investment in this critical program is necessary to end veteran homelessness.
Also of note is a one year extension of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH), which comes with a small budget increase. NCHV fully supports the permanent authorization of the USICH. To read more about this important organization, click here. 
NCHV will continue to keep you updated on the progress of this bill as it moves towards the signature of the President.
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