Discretionary Spending
Function 600 - Income Security
Increase Funding for Public Housing Agencies’ Administration of Housing Assistance
CBO periodically issues a compendium of policy options (called Options for Reducing the Deficit) covering a broad range of issues, as well as separate reports that include options for changing federal tax and spending policies in particular areas. This option appears in one of those publications. The options are derived from many sources and reflect a range of possibilities. For each option, CBO presents an estimate of its effects on the budget but makes no recommendations. Inclusion or exclusion of any particular option does not imply an endorsement or rejection by CBO.
Over the past decade, appropriations for the administration of federal housing assistance have been lower than the amounts indicated by the funding formula outlined in appropriations acts and federal regulations—averaging about 80 percent of those designated amounts. According to CBO’s estimates, if lawmakers were to appropriate amounts indicated by the formula—while holding constant the number of households served—doing so would increase federal spending by $4 billion from 2016 to 2025 compared with maintaining funding, in real (inflation-adjusted) terms, at its 2014 level.