A bill to strengthen the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness.
This bill aims to strengthen the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) by restructuring funding and the statutory framework that governs the council’s work under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. The core change is to remove a fixed, capped funding amount and replace it with a general authorization that allows “such sums as may be necessary to carry out this title,” giving Congress more flexibility to fund USICH activities through appropriations. At the same time, the bill reorganizes the statutory sections by striking the current Section 209 and renaming Section 210 as Section 209, and it adds a new Section 209 titled “Encouragement of State involvement.” In short, the bill seeks to (1) increase funding flexibility for USICH and (2) place greater emphasis on encouraging state participation in homelessness policy and coordination. Because the full text only outlines these structural changes, the bill does not specify new programs or funding levels beyond the general funding flexibility, nor does it provide detailed duties or authorities beyond what is implied by the new “Encouragement of State involvement” section.
Key Points
- 1Replaces a fixed funding amount for USICH with a flexible authorization: funding for Title II would be “such sums as may be necessary to carry out this title,” removing the previous cap and allowing funding to be set via annual appropriations.
- 2Removes existing Section 209 and reassigns Section 210 as Section 209, aligning the statute with a new framework.
- 3Creates a new Section 209 titled “Encouragement of State involvement,” signaling an emphasis on encouraging greater state participation in homelessness policy and coordination (though the bill text provided does not include the full discretionary details).
- 4Changes are limited to Title II of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, i.e., the provisions related to USICH, without explicit addition of new programs in the text shown.
- 5The bill is an introduction in the Senate and would require passage by both chambers and appropriation action to take effect; sponsor information is listed as a group of Senators, with no individual sponsor named in the provided excerpt.