At the Dec. 8 Urban Experience Committee meeting, the city's contracted federal lobbyist updated Spokane leaders on federal appropriations, earmarks on the city's agenda and potential changes to HUD funding guidance that could affect homelessness programs.

The lobbyist said Congress left the FY25 appropriations process unresolved earlier this year and that recent continuing-appropriations action extends most agency funding through Jan. 30, 2026. He described a likely next tranche of bills in early January and noted the city’s priorities are tied to several of those packages.

Notably, he said a $1,250,000 earmark for Spokane to expand its mobile alternative response teams is included in the Senate Commerce-Justice-State bill and a $2,000,000 earmark for a childcare and housing project requested by a local public-development authority appears in the Senate Transportation-HUD bill. "If that goes as part of this next package, and gets signed into law, then after nearly two years of working on that earmark, we would be able to get that done," he said.

The lobbyist also flagged a recently released HUD Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) and said many communities and congressional staff are concerned about its direction. He described national advocacy efforts pushing to extend the current NOFO policy for one year to give local projects time to adapt, especially for permanent supportive housing, youth-homelessness demonstrations and services for domestic-violence victims.

Councilmembers pressed for details on environmental contaminants (PFAS) and other programmatic issues; the lobbyist said PFAS was a major topic at recent conferences and offered to follow up after additional federal meetings.

No formal council action was recorded at the briefing; staff encouraged continued coordination with the delegation to advance earmarks and to monitor NOFO developments that could affect Spokane's homelessness and housing agenda.