McCormick partners with swing state Democrat on housing bills

Sen. Dave McCormick said he’s introduced a second bill aimed at addressing the cost of housing with Arizona Democrat Ruben Gallego.

In a press release, the swing state senators said the bill is meant to increase cooperation across U.S. government agencies with programs and research on affordable housing. It directs the Departments of Agriculture, Urban Development and Veterans Assistance to create a data-sharing agreement for housing-related research and information, and to report to Congress on how they can increase collaboration on housing programs.

“Homeownership is out of reach for far too many families in Pennsylvania, including our nation’s veterans,” McCormick said in a press release. “We need federal agencies to work together more effectively to increase the limited supply of housing and reduce housing costs.”

This follows another bill aimed at boosting the development of multifamily homes, which Gallego introduced and McCormick co-sponsored in late April. That bill would increase the limit on loans from the Federal Housing Administration for developers of multifamily homes with up to four units.

The loan limits, which Gallego said in a press release had not been raised since 2003, were put in place to prevent the Department of Housing and Urban Development from subsidizing luxury projects.

McCormick and Gallego were also co-sponsors of a bill introduced by Alex Padilla (D-Ca.) that is intended to help homeless veterans by excluding veterans’ disability payments from counting towards annual income qualifications for a joint HUD and VA housing program.