Senate Bill Includes CDFI Funding, $50 Million Less Than House Measure
Advocates had been pushing Congress to provide $300 million for the program. The Senate bill includes $250 million in funding.
A Senate Appropriation subcommittee on Tuesday approved a spending bill that would provide the Community Development Financial Institutions program with $250 million in FY20, some $50 million less than the House proposed.
In approving the legislation, which includes the Treasury Department, the Senate Financial Services Appropriations Subcommittee called for the program to receive the same amount it received in FY19.
The Senate Appropriations Committee will consider the bill on Thursday.
Program advocates had been pushing Congress to provide $300 million for the program and succeeded in the House.
Sen. Christopher Coons (D-Del.), the ranking Democrat on the appropriations subcommittee, noted Tuesday that the Trump Administration has proposed eliminating the program. The administration contends that the program has achieved its goal and that an adequate amount of private capital is now available.
Congress has consistently refused to kill the program and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told a House subcommittee earlier this year that the administration might reevaluate its opposition, given the strong congressional support.
However, administration officials continued to voice their opposition to the program when they sent House appropriators a letter in June opposing the House funding measure.
House and Senate appropriators are still a long way from enacting FY20 funding bills. With the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year approaching, Congress is likely to enact a short-term Continuing Resolution funding much of the government, while the FY20 spending bills are hammered out.