Breaking Advocacy Update: Partial Government Shutdown Ends as House Passes Five-Bill FY 2026 Appropriations “Minibus” Package; Includes HUD Funding
The full U.S. House yesterday afternoon passed a five-bill “minibus” Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 appropriations package – (as approved late last week by the Senate) – that effectively ends the four-day, partial government shutdown. President Donald Trump subsequently signed the legislation.
Importantly, the enacted package includes funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Departments of Defense, Transportation, Health and Human Services, Treasury, and Labor through Sept. 30, 2026.
The legislation closely resembles last month’s House-passed H.R. 7148, the FY 2026 Consolidated Appropriations Act, which originally included six separate funding measures. Today’s passed bill also includes a two-week continuing resolution (approved by the Senate on Friday) for the Department of Homeland Security through February 13.
Go deeper: Importantly, the package also extends federal authority for the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) to the end of the current fiscal year (through September 30, 2026) – preventing a longer-term lapse that could have created “frictions” at the closing table for consumers, lenders, and other market participants.
Why it matters: In a letter last month, MBA indicated its support for H.R. 7148, the “T-HUD” appropriations “minibus” bill. H.R. 7148 includes funding levels for the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), Ginnie Mae, HUD rental assistance, housing counseling, and IT modernization that all align closely with prior FY25 levels. Appropriators crafting the package largely rejected the steep spending cuts and program eliminations first proposed last year by the Trump administration. This was especially true for the HUD budget where lawmakers provided a robust 9% spending increase overall (nearly double the President’s original HUD budget request).
Key MBA-supported provisions included in the package and now enacted through September 30, 2026, include:
• $160 million for administrative expenses supporting FHA’s Mutual Mortgage Insurance (MMI) Program Account
• $56 million in funding for Ginnie Mae staffing and technology upgrades
• $57.5 million in funding for the Housing Counseling Assistance Program
• $345 million in funding for HUD’s Information Technology Fund (possibly including FHA single-family and multifamily IT modernization upgrades)
• $35 billion in commitment authority for the GI/SRI Fund (FHA multifamily and health care program).
What’s next: All federal agencies relevant to real estate finance are now funded through Sept. 30, 2026, providing near-term certainty for housing and mortgage market participants. Attention will now turn to the FY 2027 appropriations process, which is expected to begin later this spring as the Trump administration releases its budget request and congressional committees begin hearings.
For more information, please contact Rachel Kelley at (202) 557-2816, Madisyn Rhone at (202) 557-2741, George Rogers at (202) 557-2797, and Jeremy Green at (202) 557-2849.
