Rural Housing Accessibility Act
Sponsored By: Senator Joni Ernst
Introduced
Summary
Would create a new portability framework for Housing Choice vouchers that caps inter-agency billing at 12 months and clarifies when agencies must absorb or bill for ported assistance.
Show full summary
- Families: Portable families seeking housing outside their original agency would face clearer rules about how long the sending agency could be billed. They would either have their voucher absorbed by the local agency or be covered under a billing arrangement for up to 12 months.
- Covered public housing agencies: Any agency that uses less than 95 percent of its budget authority in a year would have to decide whether to absorb incoming vouchers with its own funds or bill the original agency, and it must make payments under an annual contributions contract with the Secretary.
- Initial public housing agencies: Sending agencies could be billed for assistance payments but billing would be limited to a maximum of 12 months from the first bill.
Your PRIA Score
Personalized for You
How does this bill affect your finances?
Sign up for a PRIA Policy Scan to see your personalized alignment score for this bill and every other piece of legislation we track. We analyze your financial profile against policy provisions to show you exactly what matters to your wallet.
Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
1 provisions identified: 0 benefits, 0 costs, 1 mixed.
Easier portability for housing vouchers
If enacted, this bill would add new portability rules for tenant-based housing vouchers. It would define a "covered public housing agency" as one that uses less than 95% of its budget authority in a fiscal year. It would define "initial public housing agency" by reference to 24 C.F.R. §982.4 and "portable family" as a household trying to rent outside its initial agency's area. If a covered agency has jurisdiction where a portable family seeks housing, the agency would have to notify the initial agency whether it will absorb the voucher or bill the initial agency. If the covered agency absorbs the voucher, it would make assistance payments under an annual contributions contract with the Secretary. If the covered agency bills the initial agency, billing would be limited to no more than 12 months from the first bill. These rules would take effect upon enactment.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Joni Ernst
IA • R
Cosponsors
Chuck Grassley
IA • R
Sponsored 3/24/2025
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
View on Congress.govTake It Personal
Get Your Personalized Policy View
Start a Free Government Policy Watch to see how policy affects your household, then upgrade to PRIA Full Coverage for year-round monitoring.
Already have an account? Sign in