Federal housing grants now punish slow-growth cities to reward sprawl.
H.R. 6363 — Build Now Act of 2025 · Filed by Lisa McClain (R-MI) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Dec 2, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill modifies how the federal government allocates Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) to cities and counties. Instead of using a fixed formula, it rewards jurisdictions that are building housing faster than their peers with bonus funding, and penalizes those building slower by cutting their allocations by 10%. The goal is to incentivize local governments to reduce zoning and permitting barriers to housing construction.
Why we flagged it
The bill is fundamentally a reallocation formula for federal housing grants, designed to shift funding toward jurisdictions with faster housing growth rates. It is not a direct subsidy or tax provision, but rather a conditional redistribution of existing CDBG dollars based on housing production metrics.
What the text implies
- Cities with slower housing growth—often lower-income, minority-majority, or post-industrial communities—will lose 10% of CDBG funding, which supports affordable housing development, community centers, and infrastructure. This may deepen regional inequality.
- The bill excludes jurisdictions with high rental vacancy rates, high fair-market rents, or recent disaster declarations from eligibility. This may inadvertently exclude communities most in need of housing investment.
The full analysis lists 5 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
Real estate developers and construction firms in high-growth metropolitan areas; Property management companies in jurisdictions with strong housing production; Homebuilders and residential construction contractors