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The Real Estate Roundtable’s 2020 State of the Industry (SOI) Meeting this week in Washington featured discussions with policymakers and industry leaders on affordable housing solutions, economic development and job creation, infrastructure, tax regulations affecting CRE and other national issues

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) recently confirmed plans to advance legislation in 2020 that would expand and create new renewable energy and energy-efficiency tax incentives. “We talked about (the markup) this morning,” Neal told reporters on Jan. 14. He added, “We are scheduling events.”

A proposal to improve the nation’s infrastructure and surface transportation will be unveiled by House Democratic leaders next week – as the House Ways and Means Committee considers how to pay for it during a Jan. 29 hearing on “Paving the Way for Funding and Financing Infrastructure Investments.”

The Labor Department on Jan. 12 released its final “joint employer” rule, returning to a standard where businesses can only be held responsible for workplace violations and collective bargaining obligations regarding workers over which they have “direct and immediate” control.

The Treasury Department on Jan. 13 issued two final regulations that increase the U.S. executive branch's ability to address national security concerns arising from certain foreign investments, including real estate transactions.

The Real Estate Roundtable submitted today a suite of policy suggestions to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to improve access to affordable housing. The comments respond to HUD’s Request for Information seeking public feedback on laws, regulations, land use requirements and administrative practices posing barriers to housing affordability and availability.

During recent military actions between the United States and Iran, the real estate industry engaged in intensive information-sharing efforts with government agencies on a variety of homeland security concerns.

The Trump Administration – in a continuing effort to streamline government approvals of major infrastructure projects such as highways, airports, tunnels and pipelines – yesterday proposed the most significant changes in over four decades to federal-level environmental review requirements.

House Democrats on Jan. 8 released a legislative framework on climate policy that addresses buildings and energy efficiency among its sector-specific proposals. The goal for the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Climate Leadership and Environmental Action for Our Nation’s (CLEAN) Future Act is to achieve overall net-zero greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) for the United States by 2050.

A seven-year reauthorization of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) was approved this week by the House and Senate as part of a year-end funding bill (H.R. 1865). The provision reauthorizes TRIA through 2027, a year ahead of its slated sunset date of Dec. 31, 2020. (TRIA provisions on pages 1233–1236 of the year-end funding legislation).

The Treasury Department yesterday released final regulations implementing Opportunity Zones (OZ) tax incentives. The details of the 544 pages of regulations are still under review, but the highly anticipated rules appear to embrace key Roundtable recommendations aimed at spurring capital formation and economic development in low-income communities. (Roundtable comment letter, July 1, 2019)

The Washington, DC policy news publication The Hill on Dec. 12 released its annual Top Lobbyists list, with includes The Real Estate Roundtable’s President and CEO, Jeffrey DeBoer. The list recognizes several Washington industry representatives for their 2019 advocacy efforts and recognizes “the people who wielded their clout and knowledge most effectively on behalf of their clients,” according to the publication.

This week, 11 Senators sent a bipartisan letter urging Treasury Secretary Mnuchin to withdrawal section 2 of IRS Notice 2007-55, which applies U.S. capital gains tax to certain types of inbound real estate investment transactions that were previously treated as nontaxable under the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act (FIRPTA). (Roundtable background on FIRPTA)

A bipartisan spending deal to fund the government before a Dec. 20 deadline has been agreed to in principle, with details and a vote expected next week, according to top congressional lawmakers.

Prospects for a year-end tax bill are uncertain as congressional leadership and the Trump Administration expect to reveal details of a nearly $1.4 trillion FY2020 spending deal next week. Meanwhile, the House Ways and Means Committee on Dec. 11 approved a temporary suspension of the $10,000 deduction cap on state and local taxes (SALT) enacted in the 2017 tax reform bill.

The White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is reviewing a set of highly anticipated final rules for the Opportunity Zones program created by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, according to a Dec. 6 OMB notice. The rules will address requirements of qualified opportunity funds that invest in opportunity zones (OZs).

Responding to concerns raised by The Real Estate Roundtable and others, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on Dec. 9 issued Notice 2019-66 modifying and postponing several proposed changes to partnership tax reporting requirements.

The Real Estate Roundtable is featured as one of the industry’s “Influencers in Marketing and Communications” in the November / December issue of Real Estate Forum magazine published this week.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on Nov. 22 published a Request for Information (RFI) seeking public comment on Federal, State, local, and Tribal laws, regulations, land use requirements, and administrative practices that may pose barriers to affordable housing development.

Congress faces a Dec. 20 deadline to fund the government or risk a shutdown as the impeachment process continues in the House, with a likely trial in the Senate beginning in January.