Build Now Act of 2025

The Build Now Act of 2025 would modify how the federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) allocations under HUD (Section 106) are distributed to metropolitan cities and urban counties. The bill ties part of each jurisdiction’s annual CDBG allocation to how fast its housing stock is growing. Jurisdictions with stronger housing growth (relative to their prior growth) could receive a bonus funded by reductions to other eligible recipients, while jurisdictions with slower growth could see a 10 percent cut. The law also sets eligibility rules, defines how housing units are counted, requires annual reporting, and lays out a phased implementation through 2042. The overall aim is to incentivize increased housing supply while providing data-driven adjustments to funding. Key design features include: (1) a new housing growth improvement metric that compares current growth to a prior period; (2) bonuses for those above or at median growth (including extremely high-growth recipients) funded by reductions from others; (3) a 10 percent downward adjustment for those below the median growth rate (excluding high-growth outliers); (4) specific data and calculation rules for determining housing units and growth; (5) a briefing and notification process for recipients, plus a published annual report on growth rates and bonus/↓ recipients; and (6) a set implementation window (effective in the second full fiscal year after enactment through fiscal year 2042).