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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!

In mid-September, the House Ways and Means Committees approved its piece of the Build Back Better legislation, which included all of the provisions of the Historic Tax Credit Growth and Opportunity Act (HTC-GO). Championed by Representatives Blumenauer (D-OR) and LaHood (R-IL) in the House and Senators Cardin (D-MD), Cassidy (R-LA), Cantwell (D-WA), and Collins (R-ME) in the Senate, HTC-GO would make the most substantive changes to the federal historic tax credit in a generation and build upon the nation’s most effective program to promote historic preservation and community revitalization through historic rehabilitation.

Congress is actively negotiating President Biden’s Build Back Better legislation, and the historic tax credit provisions that are part of the House Ways and Means Committee recommendations could be eliminated from the final bill. Your advocacy in support of the HTC-GO provisions is critical for the preservation movement to achieve this important policy victory. With these proposed changes, more historic rehabilitation projects will be possible from Main Street to our busiest downtowns.

Please call your senators and urge their support for including improvements to the Historic Tax Credit as part of the final agreement on the Build Back Better legislation.

To easily connect with Senate offices, call the Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121

Explain to Senate offices:

1. Introduce yourself as a constituent.
2. Tell them: “The Historic Tax Credit is the single most important tool for rehabilitating historic buildings. Unfortunately, this incentive has not been updated in more than 30 years. It is time to modernize the historic tax credit. Please include the historic tax credit provisions proposed by the House Ways and Means Committee in the final reconciliation bill. The proposed improvements to the historic tax credit would benefit all types of rehabilitation projects from Main Street to large-scale rehabilitation efforts across the country. Help us preserve more and preserve better!”

As a result of your efforts, provisions to improve the historic tax credit were included in the initial drafting of the infrastructure legislation under development in the House of Representatives. On September 15, the House Ways and Means Committee approved its piece of the Build Back Better legislation, which included all of the provisions of the Historic Tax Credit Growth and Opportunity Act (HTC-GO). Disagreement over the size of the infrastructure legislation, however, likely means it will be reduced and certain provisions will be cut.

Your continued support of HTC-GO is essential to ensure the changes we are seeking to the historic tax credit will remain in the final bill.

As the Senate develops its version of the infrastructure legislation, take action now to let your senators know you support the historic tax credit provisions proposed by the House of Representatives and that you want to see them included in the Senate bill. With sustained advocacy, the preservation community will be well-positioned to take advantage of a very rare opportunity to substantially improve and modernize the federal historic tax credit.

Urge your senators to include improvements to the historic tax credit as part of the Build Back Better legislation making its way through Congress.

To get a fact sheet about HTC and HTC-GO, visit the Preservation Leadership Forum's Resource Library.

The Historic Tax Credit and Growth Opportunity Act (H.R. 2294/S. 2266) was introduced in the Senate last month by Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), and Susan Collins (R-ME). Both the House and Senate bills include provisions that would permanently add value to the Historic Tax Credit (HTC), improve access to the credit, and increase investment in smaller rehabilitation projects. H.R. 2294 also includes temporary tax provisions to increase the credit from 20 to 30 percent for all projects and bring relief to rehabilitation projects impacted by the pandemic. The HTC-GO bill includes nearly 60 bipartisan cosponsors in the House.

At this time, take action to urge your representatives and senators to cosponsor these bills that ensure the ongoing success of the HTC in rehabilitating the nation’s historic buildings and supporting community revitalization.