S. 711·High School Intermediate
A Bill to Create a Federal Housing Construction Tax Credit
Sen. Sato (D-CA)
Tax credit for builders constructing for-sale homes priced below 120% of area median.
Sec. 1 — Mandate
Builders constructing new for-sale homes priced below 120% of area median income receive a 15% federal tax credit.
Sec. 2 — Cap
Credit capped at $40,000 per unit.
Sec. 3 — Funding
$6.8 billion over 5 years.
Sec. 4 — Enforcement
IRS verification; HUD income-band guidance.
Tournament Prep
Mechanical parts, sourced & timed
Use this as your pre-round checklist. Memorize the source citation. Time yourself to the delivery target.
- Bill / Number
- S. 711 — A Bill to Create a Federal Housing Construction Tax Credit
- Funding source
- $6.8B over 5 years in forgone tax revenue.
- Timeline
- Effective at next tax year.
- Realistic — IRS already administers LIHTC and similar credits.
- Enforcing agency
- IRS + HUD income-band guidance.
- Yes — joint admin of LIHTC precedent.
- Penalty for non-compliance
- Recapture of improperly claimed credits.
- Source citation
- Joint Center for Housing Studies (Harvard, 2023), 'State of the Nation's Housing' — jchs.harvard.edu.
- Delivery time (read aloud)
- 1:00 (60s)
Strongest counter-argument
Builder tax credits get captured by land prices and developer margins — buyers see little of it.
Your pre-emptive answer
Harvard JCHS (2023) examined LIHTC pass-through — 75-85% of credit value reaches end users when *tied to price caps*, which Sec. 1 does. The 120% AMI cap is the structural fix to the capture critique.