May 27, 2025
The Honorable Bill Hagerty
Chair
Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services & General Government
US Senate
251 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable David Joyce
Chair
Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services & General Government
US House of Representatives
2065 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Jack Reed
Ranking Member
Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services & General Government
US Senate
728 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Steny Hoyer
Ranking Member
Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services & General Government
US House of Representatives
1705 Longworth House Office BuildingWashington, DC 20515
Dear Chair Hagerty, Chair Joyce, Ranking Member Reed, and Ranking Member Hoyer,
The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) and our undersigned member organizations ask you to protect discretionary award funding for the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) under the Department of Treasury. We ask Congress to appropriate $324 million to the CDFI Fund for FY 2026.
The White House’s recent FY26 budget proposal calls for a $291 million cut to the CDFI Fund budget, a drastic decrease from this year’s appropriated budget of $324 million. The proposal recommends eliminating the CDFI Fund’s discretionary awards, such as the Financial Assistance and Technical Assistance grants, that have supported hundreds of CDFIs to increase their loans and investments to small businesses in underserved areas.
The CDFI Fund’s discretionary awards have made a profound impact on scaling small businesses, creating jobs, and strengthening local economies in all parts of the country: urban, rural, and Native American communities.
Since 2010, the CDFI Fund’s Financial Assistance Award has enabled CDFI recipients to originate $300 billion in total loans and investments in distressed and underserved communities, provide more than $55.8 billion to 1.34 million businesses, and support the development of more than 557,000 units of affordable housing. Many Republican districts have benefited from this significant flow of capital into low-to-moderate-income areas.
We appreciate the White House for its emphasis on expanding capital access in rural areas, particularly with the establishment of the $100 million Rural Financial Award Program. However, decreasing the CDFI Fund’s discretionary fund by $291 million will leave gaps in small business investment across urban communities and Native American tribal lands. Many businesses have been struck by rising costs in major cities, and CDFIs can provide flexible financing to help them recover and contribute to the economic growth of their communities.
The White House justifies the elimination of discretionary awards because “the CDFI Industry has matured beyond the need for ‘seed’ money and should at this point be financially self-sustaining.” However, many small CDFIs that offer microloans still have insufficient access to funding. These CDFIs, many of which are NCRC members, are often overlooked by private funders in favor of larger CDFIs because of their limited visibility and connections. The CDFI Fund has helped to level the playing field and provided smaller CDFIs with discretionary grant awards so they can expand their capacity to serve more small businesses.
Investing in CDFIs should be a bipartisan priority. 92% of all Congressional districts have at least one CDFI located within. Furthermore, of the 5,900 headquarters and branches of community lenders, 60 percent are located in Republican congressional districts. A significant slash in the CDFI Fund budget would disrupt the flow of capital to small businesses and ultimately slow economic growth across the country.
The American promise of opportunity should be available to all, no matter where they live. We urge Congress to protect the CDFI Fund’s discretionary award funding and appropriate $324 million to the Fund for FY2026.
Sincerely,
National Community Reinvestment Coalition
3 Generations CDC
ACT! Albany Community Together, INC.
AltCap
Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development
Beneficial State Foundation
Bravo Vial Consulting
Breaking Chains Inc
Bridgeport Neighborhood Trust D/B/A Building Neighborhoods Together
CASA of Oregon
CBA Fund
CDFI Friendly South Bend
CEN-TEX HISPANIC CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Chaffee Housing Trust
Chicago Community Loan Fund
CHWC, Inc.
Community Development Corporation of Oregon – HOME Pathways
Community First Lending
Corporation for Supportive Housing
ECDI
ECONOMIC AND COMM DEV INSTITUTE INC
Entrepreneurship for All
Exodus Lending
Friends of the Public Bank East Bay
Gary Housing Authority and Northwest Indiana Development Corporation
Genesee Co-op FCU
Habitat for Humanity of Michigan
HARLINGEN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
HFH St. Tammany West
Hip Hop Caucus
Homestead Resources
Housing Assistance Council
Housing Oregon
Housing Research & Advocacy Center dba Fair Housing Center for Rights & Research
Hustle USA
IFF
Impact Ventures
Inclusive Action for the City
Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership
Innercity Community Development Corporation
Innovative Housing Opportunities
Iowa Community Capital
Latino Economic Development Center
Leviticus 25:23 Alternative Fund, Inc.
LISC Toledo
Local First Arizona
Local Initiatives Support Corporation
MakingChange, Inc
Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corps (MACDC)
McLennan Community Investment Fund
MiSide Housing
Movin’ Out, Inc.
National Coalition for Community Capital
Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater Berks, INC
Neighborhood Partnership Housing Services
Neighborhood Recovery Community Development Corporation
NeighborWorks Laredo
New Jersey Community Capital
Northwest Indiana Reinvestment Alliance
NWCS, Inc.
Opportunity Resource Fund
Our Neighborhoods Capital Fund
PathStone Corporation
People’s Opportunity Fund
People’s Self-Help Housing
Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations
Piedmont Housing Alliance
Pima County Community Land Trust
Prestamos CDFI
Prosperity Indiana
Proud Ground
Providence Foundation of San Francisco
Regional Housing Legal Services
Resource One Credit Union
Rural Housing Coalition of New York
San Jacinto Senior Community
Sol Development
Southern Dallas Progress Community Development Corporation
Southern Region Economic Development Consortium
Southwest Economic Solutions DBA MiSide Wealth
Southwest Fresno CDC
Southwest Neighborhood Housing Services
Southwest Solutions dba MiSide
Summit Properties-BJMills
The Coalition
The Enterprise Center at PathStone
The Food Trust
The Greenlining Institute
The National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development (National CAPACD)
The Victory Employer Services
Tolson Center, Inc.d
United South Broadway Corporation
Universal Housing Solutions CDC
Urban Economic Development Association of Wisconsin
Urban Strategies, Inc. (USI)
Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation
Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency
Western Reserve Community Fund
Women’s Economic Ventures
WSECU Washington State Employees Credit Union
