The route ahead for the essential housing investments Democrats hoped to safeguard in the Build Back Better Act (BBB) is becoming cloudy, as Senator Joe Manchin’s opposition to the party’s partisan package casts doubt on the party’s chances of enacting it, The Hill reported.
Last year, Democrats made headlines after announcing plans for $300 billion in unprecedented affordable housing expenditures, including increased money for rental aid and public housing construction, that advocates saw as potentially transformative in fighting the housing problem.
However, as intraparty conflicts erupted over the magnitude of the plan, an important part of President Biden’s agenda, the cost of housing investments began to plummet, as did the cost of other aspects of the massive package. Housing funding was reduced by nearly half in last year’s House-passed edition of the environmental and social expenditure plan.
And it’s unclear whether the same level of housing investments will be included in any future Democratic effort this year to approve a package through budget reconciliation, a technical mechanism that allows Democrats to avoid a GOP filibuster in the Senate’s equally divided chamber.
“I know nobody wants to be the bad guy and say, ‘It ain’t happening,’ but if we’re going to do a reconciliation vehicle, it’s going to be skinny,” he bluntly said, as quoted by The Hill.
However, as intraparty conflicts erupted over the magnitude of the plan, an important part of President Biden’s agenda, the cost of housing investments began to plummet, as did the cost of other aspects of the massive package. Housing funding was reduced by nearly half in last year’s House-passed edition of the environmental and social expenditure plan.
And it’s unclear whether the same level of housing investments will be included in any future Democratic effort this year to approve a package through budget reconciliation, a technical mechanism that allows Democrats to avoid a GOP filibuster in the Senate’s equally divided chamber.
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