The bill establishes a permanent program to preserve USDA-financed affordable rental housing, upgrades USDA technology and staffing to accelerate application processing, expands home repair grants for rural families, and increases accountability through annual reporting requirements and GAO audits to safeguard taxpayer dollars.
Establish a permanent program to preserve USDA-financed affordable rental housing.
Occurrences
Evidence
Key provisions of the Rural Housing Service Reform Act include: “The creation of a permanent program to preserve USDA-financed affordable rental housing by enabling nonprofits to acquire properties and keep rental assistance after loans mature.”
Section 201 is titled “Permanent Establishment of Housing Preservation and Revitalization Program,” and the bill text also sets rulemaking and authorization provisions for carrying out the program.
Latest Action: Senate - 02/11/2026 Received in the Senate. Tracker: Tip | This bill has the status Passed House.
The U.S. House of Representatives today passed the bipartisan Housing for the 21st Century Act... The package includes key provisions from Rep. Nunn’s bipartisan Rural Housing Service Reform Act, which modernizes long-outdated rural housing programs... The legislation now awaits consideration in the Senate.
The House just passed the bipartisan 21st Century Road to Housing Act, which includes my Rural Housing Service Reform Act to modernize outdated USDA housing programs and expand access to affordable housing across rural Iowa. ... Now it’s time to get this bill to the President’s desk.
Assessments
Nunn clearly took concrete action on this promise: he introduced and promoted the Rural Housing Service Reform Act, whose text expressly includes permanent establishment of a housing preservation and revitalization program for USDA-financed affordable rental housing. His provisions were then incorporated into a broader housing package that passed the House in 2026. But the available evidence shows the package only reached the Senate and had not been enacted into law or signed by the President within the lookback window. Because the promised permanent program was advanced substantially but not completed, this is partial rather than delivered.