After several weeks of negotiations the House passed the Build Back Better Act, President Biden’s social infrastructure reconciliation package. The final bill passed by the House DID NOT include much-needed provisions to enhance and improve the Historic Tax Credit. As the Senate is expected to take up the bill in the next few weeks, we need your help to make sure these important HTC provisions are included in the final reconciliation bill!
The draft of the bill released by the House Ways and Means Committee included similar provisions to the Historic Tax Credit Growth and Opportunity Act (H.R. 2294, S. 2266), that would temporarily increase the credit to 30% for five years, permanently increase the credit to 30% for projects under $2.5 million, and make several enhancements to improve the credit. While the Build Back Better bill passed by the House did bring back some community development tax incentive provisions, HTC provisions were NOT included. We need your help to ensure that long overdue provisions to enhance the Historic Tax Credit (HTC) are included in the final bill.
Take Action
The Historic Tax Credit has not been positively updated in 35 years. The provisions under consideration would help address pandemic related challenges impacting HTC projects, make the credit more attractive, especially for smaller projects, and easier to use. These provisions were NOT in the House passed Build Back Better bill. Senators need to hear from grassroots advocates like you to ensure these provisions are added back in the final bill. There are several actions you can take!
- Call your Senators, urge them to support provisions to enhance the Historic Tax Credit in the reconciliation bill.
- Call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your Senators office.
- Introduce yourself as a constituent and say something like: “The Historic Tax Credit is the single most important tool for historic preservation. Though the HTC provisions were included in the Ways and Means bill in September, HTC provisions were not included in the recent “Build Back Better” bill passed by the House. Please make sure to include the HTC provisions in the final reconciliation bill. These provisions would benefit projects from Main Street revitalizations to large-scale rehabilitation while also supporting community revitalization and climate change mitigation.”
- Phone calls to your Senate offices are the priority. However, please feel free to also follow-up by email, especially if you have any contacts in your Senator’s office.
- You can also quickly and easily send an email your Senators online.
Negotiations are moving quick, so time is of the essence. We’ve provided additional resources and talking points to help with you advocacy efforts. Take action today!
Additional Resources
