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Action Alert: Schedule a Meeting or Site Visit During the August Recess!
The House and Senate will be on recess from August 3rd to September 8th. Be sure to get your request in for an in-district meeting or site-visit!
Preservation Action is urging our members and supporters to ramp up their advocacy efforts as Congress begins their summer recess. This is a critical time to reach out to your Representative and Senators and invite them to tour a Historic Tax Credit project in their district/state, or schedule a meeting. Congress is expected to consider several pieces of must-pass legislation in the Fall and we hope to insert provisions from the Historic Tax Credit Growth and Opportunity Act (H.R 2825) into larger, must-pass bills that address tax issues. The August recess is the best opportunity for lawmakers to see the incredible benefits of the Historic Tax Credit and potential benefits of the HTC-GO Act first-hand. Reach out to your members of Congress today!
Historic Tax Credit
The Historic Tax Credit (HTC) encourages private investment in the rehabilitation of historic buildings.Through 2018 the HTC has helped to rehabilitate 44,000 historic buildings and created more than 2.5 million jobs. As part of tax reform legislation that passed in 2017, the HTC was altered, requiring the credit to be taken over 5 years. The HTC-GO Act aims to improve the tax credit and restore some of the value lost by making several important changes, including eliminating the back-end basis adjustment, which reduces the overall value, and enhancing the credit for small projects.
TAKE ACTION
- Invite your members of Congress to attend an in-district/in-state meeting or tour a completed or planned HTC project. Representatives and Senators will be in-district Aug. 3rd to Sep. 8th. Showing members of Congress rehabilitated historic buildings is one of the most effective ways to demonstrate the value of the HTC. Be sure to also discuss how the HTC-GO could further benefit communities across their district/state. Be flexible with possible dates to meet, but if your member of Congress is unavailable, offer to meet with their staff.
- Review the Congressional site-visit guide. Our partners at the National Trust Community Investment Corporation and the Historic Tax Credit Coalition put together a sample meeting request letter and site-visit guidance document to make it easy for advocates to reach out their lawmakers.
- Encourage your Representative to cosponsor HTC-GO, H.R 2825. It is absolutely critical we demonstrate broad support for the Historic Tax Credit Growth and Opportunity Act. Our efforts are gaining steam, we are up to 36 bipartisan cosponsors. We expect similar legislation to be introduced in the Senate this summer.
If you need any assistance arranging a site visit or meeting contact Rob Naylor at Preservation Action (
[email protected]
). Also be sure share stories and photos from your site visits with us on
Facebook
and
Twitter
!
Materials
Members of Congress are currently developing their August schedules, so now is the perfect time to submit a recess meeting/site-visit request. For additional additional tips on engaging with your members of Congress in-district, check out Preservation Action's
In-District Lobbying Guide. Below are helpful materials for your visit, including one-pagers on the Historic Tax Credit Growth and Opportunity Act, helpful tips to schedule an in-district meeting, and a meeting request sample letter. As always, be sure to let us know how your visits went! We take that information back with us when we go to the Hill!
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