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The Trump Administration on Monday released a $4.8 trillion budget for FY 2021 signaling policy priorities for a potential second term, followed by Senate and House committee hearings this week that focused on the proposal and tax-related issues – including FIRPTA repeal; correcting a drafting error affecting qualified improvement property (QIP); and expansion of the low-income housing tax credit.

In the lead-up to the November elections, Democrats continued to draw attention this week on Capitol Hill to energy and climate issues, as the House Energy Subcommittee heard testimony on a number of bills to advance efficiency in buildings and modernize the nation’s electric grid. (Subcommittee hearing and memorandum, Feb 12.) The Subcommittee’s review included the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness (ESIC) Act (H.R. 3962), long supported by The Real Estate Roundtable ...

The federal regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – the Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) who own or guarantee $5.6 trillion in single and multifamily mortgages – will propose new affordable housing requirements and duty-to-serve plans this year. Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mark Calabria said this week that the regulator’s Division of Research and Statistics will first ...

The increasing cost burden of rental housing is now reaching middle-income Americans, according to a Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) report, America’s Rental Housing 2020. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President and CEO Neel Kashkari introduced the report at a Jan. 31 event. "We need a lot more private sector development to come in, build many, many more units across the spectrum, create more supply, that'll make things more affordable for everyone. Unless we unlock the private sector, we're never going to help the vast majority of people who are struggling with affordability today," Kashkari said. • Kashari noted the challenge is how to encourage the private sector to create and preserve affordable housing alternatives at scale so that other targeted government programs can also do their part. “Our research has shown, as many others have shown, that if the private sector builds more units, even market-rate units, it adds supply to a city or region that ends up creating space for everybody, Kashkari said. (YouTube video of JCHS event and ULI’s Urban Land Magazine, Feb. 5)

Democratic leaders on the House Energy and Commerce (E&C) Committee released a far-reaching bill on January 28, signaling their plans for climate legislation based on the outcome of next November’s elections. The bill includes rigorous efficiency targets for building energy codes and a framework to drive the U.S. electric grid toward net-zero carbon emissions.

National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) President Doug Bibby – an industry leader for nearly two decades who has played a major role in advancing real estate’s policy agenda in Washington, DC – announced on Jan. 29 that he will depart the organization in 2021.

House Democratic leaders on Jan. 29 released a five-year, $760 billion framework to improve the nation’s highways, bridges, transit, and broadband, as the Ways & Means (W&M) Committee held a hearing to consider how to pay for the plan. • The 19-page “Moving Forward Framework” was unveiled by ...

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)