Financing experts from HUD and USDA will provide an outline of how their respective financing and grant programs can drive investments into Opportunity Zones. CDFA will center the discussion around USDA Rural Development programs and HUD programs within the office of Community Planning and Development. We hope you'll join the discussion!

The House has approved a $19.1 billion disaster aid package despite earlier delays. The legislation was approved 354-58. The Senate already passed the bill overwhelmingly and it heads to the President's desk for his signature.

The House Appropriations subcommittee on financial services and general government passed its legislation for the fiscal year 2020. The bill would fund the Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund at $300 million for FY2020, a $50 million increase from last year's $250 million.

The Preventing Pollution through Partnerships Act has been introduced by two House Democrats from Washington State as lawmakers continue to offer proposals for infrastructure investment. The P3 Act would expand the use of private activity bonds to include so-called green bonds.

After a White House meeting on infrastructure fell apart, the odds of Congress passing a broad $2 trillion package are slim. Instead, Congress may pursue a narrower surface transportation bill. That would happen through the reauthorization of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act, which is set to expire in October 2020.

This bill authorizes appropriations for the nation's infrastructure, including appropriations for broadband internet access, drinking water improvements, the electric power grid, energy efficiency in buildings, incentives for renewable energy systems, clean energy, revitalization of brownfield sites, hospital infrastructure and the Indian Health Service, and more.

The House Appropriations Committee voted 30-21 to push forward $37.28 billion in funds for the Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency. It represents an increase in their funding by $1.73 billion over last year. The measure now moves to the House floor for a vote.

Reps. Earl Blumenauer, Darin LaHood, Terri Sewell, and Mike Kelly have introduced the Historic Tax Credit Growth and Opportunity Act. The legislation aims to bring more value to HTC transactions by eliminating the HTC basis adjustment requirement and increasing the credit from 20 to 30 percent for properties with rehabilitation expenses of less than $2.5 million.

The CDFI Fund announced NMTC Award recipients for the calendar year 2018. Approximately $2.6 billion of NMTC investment proceeds will likely be used to finance and support businesses in low-income communities, and $809.1 million to finance and support real estate projects in low-income communities.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has issued new guidance: GASB Statement No. 91, Conduit Debt Obligations, calls for conduit issuers to stop reporting conduit debt in their financial statements and to report all of it in their accompanying notes starting Dec. 15, 2020.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today awarded nearly $1.5 billion to support seven states in their recovery from major disasters that occurred last year, including Hurricane Michael, Hurricane Florence and devastating wildfires in California.

Assistant Secretary John Fleming announced that EDA is investing $3 million to upgrade and improve infrastructure in the Town of Kearney, New Jersey. The project is expected to help create more than 7,000 jobs, generate $1 billion in private investment and be matched by $1.3 million in local funds.

In 2015, EDA announced a $1.2 million Economic Adjustment Program investment in the Brooks Development Authority. The Brooks Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone now supports nearly 13,000 jobs with more than $440 million in annual earnings. The value of Brooks and the surrounding acreage increased from $36.8 million in 2004 to $617 million today.

Government-owned ports and airports are expected to benefit from a recently released IRS Private Letter Ruling supporting a simplified method of calculating a safe harbor for private leases of tax-exempt bond-financed facilities. Private leases that go beyond 80% of the useful life of a port or airport jeopardize the public ownership of a port or airport that's required for these tax-exempt facility bonds.