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After the multi-trillion Build Back Better (BBB) spending bill stalled late last year, Congress has yet to determine a clear path forward for successfully advancing this legislation. This negates the potential opportunity to enhance the federal Historic Tax Credit in the short term as part of that legislative package.

The National Trust and our preservation partners—including the National Trust Community Investment Corporation and the Historic Tax Credit Coalition—continue to look for opportunities to strengthen the HTC. Continuing to build support for the Historic Tax Credit Growth and Opportunity Act (HTC-GO) (S. 2266/H.R. 2294) will lay the groundwork for positioning the bill for emerging legislative vehicles in the future.

The Build Back Better (BBB) reconciliation legislation is undergoing tense negotiations in the Senate. Despite early indications that enhancements to the historic tax credit (HTC) would become part of the BBB legislation, the House-passed bill (H.R. 5376) ultimately did not include these improvements. On December 11, the Senate Finance Committee released tax provisions for its version of the BBB bill, which also did not include improvements to the HTC.

As the Senate continues its consideration of the BBB legislation, longtime historic preservation champion and co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional Historic Preservation Caucus, Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), issued a call to action urging HTC supporters to reach out to their senators. Supporters must act now to express support for enhancements to the HTC and improve the chances of adding HTC provisions to the final BBB bill. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) had pushed to set up a vote on BBB this week, but negotiations have stalled and will likely extend into the next year.

More than 4,000 advocates signed a letter sent to Congressional leadership on December 1 urging Historic Tax Credit enhancements be added back into the reconciliation infrastructure package, known as the Build Back Better bill.

The letter outlines the track record of the HTC as a key revitalization tool and asks Congressional leaders to build on this success by updating and modernizing the credit. With persistent advocacy, the preservation community can create opportunities to reinsert HTC provisions into the Senate’s Build Back Better legislation.

View the full letter here, and stay tuned for additional opportunities to support the HTC.

In a major legislative achievement for the Biden administration, the House passed the President’s $1.75 trillion climate and social spending package, the Build Back Better (BBB) bill (H.R. 5376) on November 19 by a vote of 220 to 213. The initial House Ways and Means Committee reconciliation bill included transformational improvements to the historic tax credit. Unfortunately, as overall spending for the BBB legislation was reduced from $3.5 trillion to $1.75 trillion, the HTC provisions were dropped from the final House bill.

The reduced spending target for the BBB legislation also meant that supplemental funding for historic preservation activities was reduced from the original Natural Resource Committee’s $75 million recommendation to $25 million in the House-passed bill. This critically important supplemental funding will help address State Historic Preservation Offices’ and Tribal Historic Preservation Offices’ priorities that will arise from the anticipated and unprecedented investment in our nation’s infrastructure following the recent passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

It is expected the Senate will take up the BBB legislation immediately after the Thanksgiving break. President Biden and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will keep the Senate focused on completing work on the BBB legislation before the holiday recess. Should negotiations stall in the Senate, Congress will likely need to extend its work into the winter holiday recess and possibly into the new year. Complicating matters is the likelihood the Senate will amend the House-passed BBB legislation, requiring that it be reconsidered in the House before reaching the President’s desk.

To improve the chances of the Senate adding HTC provisions back into the BBB legislation, the National Trust organized a national sign-on letter to demonstrate the widespread support for improving and modernizing the HTC. The letter garnered nearly 4,200 signatories, including 2,600 organizations and 1,600 individuals, to be sent to Congressional leadership.

Take action and encourage your senators to include HTC provisions within the final Build Back Better legislation.

The National Trust just learned that the expansion of the Historic Tax Credit, one of historic preservation’s most important tools, is likely to be left out of legislation being considered by Congress. It is not too late to urge your senators to include the Growth and Opportunity Act (HTC-GO) (H.R. 2294/S. 2266) in the final Build Back Better legislation, but we must act now.

Call and email your senators TODAY, and do your part to help achieve this critical policy victory. This is an exceedingly rare opportunity to substantially improve and modernize the federal historic tax credit.

Help us preserve more and preserve better!