APARTMENT ADVOCATE
NATIONAL APARTMENT ASSOCIATION /
NATIONAL MULTIFAMILY HOUSING COUNCIL
Trump Administration Requests Funding Cuts
P
resident Trump has requested a reduction
in federal expenditures, asking Congress
to cut $18 billion from discretionary
spending, for Fiscal Year 2017. The pro-
posal calls for a $1.7 billion decrease for the U.S
Department of Housing and Urban Development
(HUD), eliminating HUD’s Choice Neighbor-
hoods grants and reducing funding for the Com-
munity Development Block Grant (CDBG) pro-
gram. Currently, the government is funded through
April 28, when new legislation must be approved,
or the government will shut down.
Of particular concern to the real estate indus-
try is funding for the Section 8 Project-Based
38 | TRENDS • MAY 2017
Rental Assistance (PBRA) and the Housing
Choice Voucher programs. The PBRA program
provides housing for 1.2 million household
through public-private partnerships, while the
Housing Choice Voucher program enables near-
ly two million households of low-and very low-
income families access to decent, safe and afford-
able housing.
NAA/NMHC and the real estate industry
have urged Congress to fully fund the PBRA
program and provide sufficient funding to renew
all Housing Choice Vouchers that are currently
under lease to prevent the displacement of el-
derly, disabled, veterans or family households.
Data Security and Breach
Standards Gain New
Momentum
With a new Congress and Administration,
most policy experts would have agreed that there
was little potential for sweeping new data secu-
rity or breach notification standards. Yet, it appears
that unexpected openings in the Congressional
calendar has left room for some activity in the
Senate on consumer privacy and cybersecurity.
NAA/NMHC are tracking these issues carefully
because apartment firms and their third-party
service providers regularly collect, use and main-
tain sensitive financial and personal data about
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