CAI-New England’s 2021 Federal Priorities - by Dawn Bauman

CAI’s Federal Legislative Action Committee (FLAC) strives to represent, serve, and protect CAI members through a comprehensive federal advocacy program focused on the United States Congress, administrative agencies, and other regulatory bodies. The FLAC has approved legislative and regulatory priorities for 2021 and the 117^th Congress. These 2021 federal priority issues focus on helping community associations through the COVID-19 pandemic and other issues important to the day-to-day operations of our communities.

Below is a summary of CAI’s 2021 federal legislative priority issues.

COVID-19 relief. CAI continues to advocate for federal resources to help community association boards, homeowners, and business partners emerge strong from the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Support for housing. CAI supports legislation to create a Homeowner Assistance Fund to provide housing security for community association homeowners who are unemployed or underemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Limiting liability for associations following government-issued pandemic protocols. CAI supports federal legislation to establish a national standard for limiting liability of community associations and other organizations that document adherence to local and state orders and federal guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Active federal priorities to support the community association housing model. CAI advocates for federal legislation and regulation to provide operational certainty for community associations and to ensure that housing opportunity and mortgage credit are available throughout the community association housing model.

• Disaster assistance. CAI supports enactment of the Disaster Assistance Equity Act of 2019 to streamline community association access to federal disaster assistance programs.

• Housing policy. CAI supports federal incentives for affordable homeownership in the community association housing model and equal access to mortgage credit for all creditworthy consumers through federal mortgage programs and agencies.

• Short-term rentals. CAI supports federal legislation easing administrative burdens of community associations seeking to enforce community short-term rental policies with online short-term rental platforms.

•Fair Housing Act and assistance animals. CAI supports current federal guidance clarifying reasonable accommodation requirements for assistance animals.

Monitoring priorities to support the community association housing model. CAI will monitor legislation and regulatory actions for any impact on the community association housing model.

• Preserving association governance. CAI supports allowing community associations to manage association affairs without unnecessary or unwarranted prescriptive federal intervention. CAI will monitor Congress and federal agencies for any proposed legislation or regulations that reduce association governance of community architectural standards and control of common property.

• Community financial stability. CAI supports public policy promoting the financial stability of community associations and their residents. CAI will monitor Congress and federal agencies for any actions that may impair community association lien priority or unreasonably restrain collection of association assessments.

• Flood risk management. CAI supports continuation of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). CAI will monitor NFIP reform to ensure community associations have continued access to NFIP-backed flood insurance.

For more information about CAI’s legislative priorities or to stay up-to-date on legislative issues, visit www.caionline.org/advocacy and CAI’s Advocacy Blog - https://advocacy.caionline.org/ 

Dawn Bauman, senior vice president, government & public affairs and C.Scott Canady is the federal advocate for CAI-NE.