U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb issued an order late Wednesday in National Urban League et al. v. Trump et al. suspending the Sept. 30 deadline that would otherwise have caused $56.1 million in FY2025 HUD Housing Counseling Assistance funds to lapse, while the court considers the ten nonprofit plaintiffs' request for broader relief. The order followed a Sept. 29 complaint alleging HUD unlawfully withheld appropriated money and retaliated against grantees for their viewpoints; WRE News reported the order did not resolve those allegations and that the government argued the court lacks power to override a congressional deadline. The court directed the parties to continue briefing through Oct. 19.
The White House's Sept. 25 rescission proposal sought to cancel $56.1 million of the $58 million appropriated for the program.
U.S. Government Accountability Office · on GAO's finding on the FY2026 pocket rescission
GAO issued a legal decision on Sept. 29 reviewing the President's Sept. 25 special message proposing rescissions from 11 appropriation accounts, for which OMB had also issued a reapportionment letter withholding the proposed amounts from obligation. GAO concluded that the Impoundment Control Act does not allow the President to withhold appropriated funds through their expiration date merely by proposing a rescission, writing that "the President may not force the expiration of budget authority Congress has already enacted and did not rescind."
The special message was transmitted five days before the fiscal year ended Sept. 30; WRE News reported the affected accounts include HUD's Housing Counseling Assistance program.
PBS NewsHour / Associated Press · on the pocket rescission, including $56 million in HUD housing counseling grants
The White House announced Friday that it is canceling nearly $1 billion in congressionally approved spending through a "pocket rescission," with the package including HUD housing counseling grants alongside HHS refugee services, a Department of Education migrant-student program and a Commerce minority business program. The White House's itemization put the HUD housing counseling line at $56 million and named UnidosUS, the National Urban League and Housing Action Illinois as grantees. The Government Accountability Office has said the pocket-rescission maneuver is illegal; Sen. Susan Collins called it "a usurpation of Congress's appropriations powers."
Congress has 45 days to review a rescission request, but the fiscal year ends September 30 and the House is out of session through the November election.
Councilors Mitch Green and Angelita Morillo announced a "Fair Share Tax" ordinance that would raise the city's CEO pay-ratio surtax on about 405 publicly traded corporations from the current 10%–25% of business-tax liability to a sliding scale of 25% to 500%, while raising the business license tax exemption from $75,000 to $500,000 in gross receipts. Their offices said the Revenue Division estimated $88 million in new surtax revenue less $16 million from the small-business cut, a net $72 million a year, with about 18,000 businesses paying nothing and saving an average of about $900. Portland Metro Chamber president Andrew Hoan said "Local taxes work like tariffs"; Councilor Steve Novick, who introduced the 2016 surtax, told the Mercury he "rather like[s] this method of taxation" but wants "a broad coalition with agreement on what exactly the money would be spent on."
The existing surtax has generated about $5 million a year since 2017; the proposal is scheduled for the Finance and Governance Committee of the Whole on October 8.
Reps. French Hill, Mike Flood, and Emanuel Cleaver told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's housing conference that implementation of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act now depends on HUD rulemaking and on the 33,295 government bodies with local zoning authority. Hill said cities that do not loosen development rules "can have your CDBG money clipped," and Flood said the bill's regulations are now being written. The bill carries no funding, and a majority of its 125 implementation items fall on HUD.
The ROAD to Housing Act became law in July 2026 without the president's signature.
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
The Oversight Committee's Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency scheduled a hearing, "Fixing Fraud and Failure in Federally Funded Homelessness Services," for September 15 at 2:00 p.m. ET. Subcommittee Chairman Tim Burchett said the panel would present Los Angeles as "a case study of failed policy, fraud, and mismanagement"; the announced witnesses are Paul Webster of the Cicero Institute and Jonathan Choe of the Discovery Institute. Mayor Karen Bass, whom Burchett asked in a September 2 letter to testify and produce LAHSA contracting records, said she is not available to appear, with her office offering to work with the subcommittee on a later date.
HUD suspended LAHSA from federal grant activity on June 11; a federal judge in August issued a preliminary injunction halting the suspension while LAHSA's lawsuit proceeds.
Willamette Week reported that a September 3 Finance and Governance Committee review of the city's annual investment policy, at which the city treasurer presented options to further restrict investments in industries including military aircraft, defense equipment, munitions, and naval ships, turned into a dispute over antisemitism. Councilor Zimmerman said there had been "a fixation since before we took office on things that this council could do to send an anti-Jewish statement"; Green called the allegations "wildly off base and frankly a breach of decorum," and Councilor Pirtle-Guiney said the conversation had "become deeply antisemitic in places." The staff options have not been introduced as an ordinance.
The screening options stem from a December 2025 council resolution directing that city investments be screened against human rights abuses.
HUD published the FY2026 Housing Trust Fund formula allocations, totaling $255,516,650.92 across the 50 states, D.C., Puerto Rico, and four territories. California received the largest allocation at $28.2 million, followed by New York and Texas, with most small states receiving the $3.3 million minimum. The notice makes the Virgin Islands' allocation subject to the suspension of the Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority.
The FY2025 allocation notice, published December 8, 2025, totaled $223,024,239.90.
HUD · on the $150 million in Indian Housing Block Grant awards and a HUD-BIA homeownership MOU
At its 2026 National Tribal Housing Summit, HUD announced $150 million in Indian Housing Block Grant Competitive Program awards to 31 Tribal communities, along with the first HUD Secretary's Awards for Excellence in Tribal Communities. HUD's Office of Public and Indian Housing and Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs signed a memorandum of understanding to implement the Tribal Trust Land Homeownership Act of 2025 by accelerating Title Status Report processing and aligning federal leasing reviews.
The White House · on the FY2027 continuing resolution signed September 2
President Trump signed H.R. 6500, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027, on September 2, providing FY2027 appropriations to federal agencies through December 11. NLIHC's analysis of the measure's text said the bill would extend the availability of some homeless assistance and fair housing grants that would otherwise have expired, and would let public housing authorities repurpose unobligated tenant-based rental assistance to cover costs for households with expiring vouchers.
The House passed the bill 370-48 on September 1 and the Senate 90-6 in early August, ahead of the September 30 funding deadline.
The House voted 370-48 Tuesday to pass the Senate's continuing resolution keeping federal agencies funded through December 11, sending it to President Trump, who was expected to sign it. The Senate passed the measure 90-6 in early August. The bill carries anomalies the Senate added, including for 2028 Olympic preparations and housing assistance, and provides funding flexibility for WIC, disaster relief, and wildland fire programs.
FY2026 government funding was set to expire September 30; the House's own July continuing resolution had run only through December 4.
Portland Ballot Measure 26-267, which would let Portlanders decide how 2% of the city's general fund is spent every year, drew organized opposition from Mayor Keith Wilson and the Northwest Oregon Labor Council through a new PAC called Protect Our City Services. Wilson said the measure would pull "at least $16 million a year from the fund that pays for shelter beds, park maintenance, and investigators." Backers qualified the measure for the November ballot after submitting 78,000 signatures.
The PAC, Protect Our City Services, had not yet appeared on the Oregon secretary of state's campaign finance database as of publication.
Multnomah County commissioners unanimously approved an amended resolution to delay a 0.8% increase in the Preschool for All marginal income tax by one year, so the increase takes effect January 1, 2028 instead of January 1, 2027. The tax currently applies at 1.5% on single-filer income over $125,000 and 3% over $250,000, with joint-filer thresholds of $200,000 and $400,000.
The 0.8% increase was originally set to take effect in 2026; the board voted unanimously in 2024 to delay it to 2027, making this the second one-year delay.
The House returned Monday from a five-week recess without voting on the Senate-passed continuing resolution funding the government through December 11; the AP reported the vote will most likely take place Tuesday. GOP leaders plan to bring the bill up under suspension of the rules, which requires a two-thirds majority, after a provision delaying a federal ban on intoxicating hemp THC products drew criticism from Republican lawmakers. The Senate passed the bill 90-6.
The House's own continuing resolution, passed July 21 by a 220-205 vote, ran only through December 4; the suspension vote would adopt the Senate's December 11 date instead.
The Washington Times · on the House vote on the Senate-passed continuing resolution through December 11
The Washington Times reported the House would return from its summer recess Monday, August 31, to vote on the Senate-passed stopgap bill extending current spending levels and policies through December 11, four weeks ahead of the September 30 deadline. The bill is being brought to the floor under suspension of the rules, which requires a two-thirds majority, and punts full-year spending decisions until after the November midterm elections. The White House issued a statement of administration policy backing the bill, saying "President Trump strongly opposes another futile government shutdown."
The House's own continuing resolution, passed July 21 by a 220-205 vote, ran only through December 4; the suspension vote would adopt the Senate's December 11 date instead.
Open The Books, an organization that tracks government spending, released a report Monday analyzing state median household incomes, the federal House Price Index, and HUD spending on 18 housing programs from 2015 to 2024. It found median home prices outpaced median household wages in all 50 states over the decade, and calculated that more than $460 billion in HUD spending reduced what the group calls the "affordability gap" by 2.75%, a change the report characterizes as statistically insignificant. Idaho had the highest affordability-gap score at 83.3; Louisiana the lowest at 6.6.
The report, "Extreme Makeover: American Dream Edition?," is published at openthebooks.com.
HUD updated its program allocation spreadsheet to include 2026 National Housing Trust Fund state allocations of $255 million, up from $223 million in 2025, after the Office of Management and Budget had delayed their release. NLIHC reported the funds were released on August 3, following a June letter from Senator Jack Reed and other senators pressing OMB. The HTF amounts had previously been omitted from HUD's spreadsheet without explanation.
The HTF, established in 2008 and first funded with grants to states in 2016, is capitalized through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac contributions rather than annual appropriations.
Federal Register (HUD) · on HUD request for comment on the CDBG-DR allocation formula
HUD published a notice seeking additional comment on the methodology it uses to calculate Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery allocations, with comments due Sept. 14, and said it will use the formula from its January 2025 notice for allocations to 2023 and 2024 disasters until rulemaking is complete. The notice, required by Section 504 of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, asks for comment on dropping SBA disaster loan data and FEMA Public Assistance estimates from the formula and on a "catastrophic" eligibility standard limiting which disasters receive grants.
The ROAD to Housing Act's Reforming Disaster Recovery Act provisions gave the CDBG-DR program standing statutory authorization for the first time.
In a Cato Institute blog post, Adam N. Michel estimated that nine of the largest proposals in the DSA's platform would cost between $71 trillion and $212 trillion in new federal spending over a decade, equivalent to between 18 and 53 percent of GDP. Michel argued that confiscating the entire wealth of the richest Americans plus all corporate profits would still leave a shortfall of $29 trillion to $169 trillion.
The DSA published the platform the estimate draws on, "Workers Deserve More," on July 14, 2026.