Last night, the Senate Appropriations Committee posted the Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) conference reports for the FSGG and National Security State Department appropriations.
CDFI Fund Appropriations
The FY 26 agreement provides $324 million for the CDFI Fund, which is the same amount at FY 25, and well above the House mark of $247.5 million and the budget request of $133 million. The agreement follows the allocation in the Senate bill, which is identical FY 25. (See table below.)
The final agreement reflects, once again, the substantial support in Congress for the CDFI Fund and its programs. That said, the bill does not address, nor does it provide direction to the administration to make FY 25 CDFI Fund appropriations available. Of the $324 million Congress appropriated in the FY 25 Continuing Resolution, only $35 million for administrative costs have been allotted to the CDFI Fund by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). OMB has yet to act on the balance, $289 million, which expires on September 30, 2026. The final agreement only includes provisions from previous years requiring the administration to comply with the notification requirements of the Impoundment Control Act.
There is a long list of programs – FA/TA, Housing FA, NACA, Small Dollar, BEA – that either have applications pending since the March or are awaiting publication of an applications for FY 25 funds. In the case of FA/TA, CDFIs with pending applications had the opportunity to submit supplemental applications by October 27, which was designed to ensure that their application complied with administration policies on DEI and climate.
The conference agreement includes language encouraging the use of New Markets Tax Credit in those communities in Appalachia hit hard by recent floods and a report on CDFI Fund programs in persistent poverty counties and a priority to CDFIs targeting at least 15 percent of their lending to these counties.
