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A coalition of associations urging the president’s administration to reconsider their support of a ban on bulk billing has significantly widened.
A recent letter signed by ten real estate organizations and associations has urged the Biden Administration to consider impacts that a proposed ban on bulk-billing at apartments, planned communities, and multifamily properties would cause on the wider U.S. housing economy.
Addressed to President Joseph Biden by name, the letter thanked the president “for highlighting the need to find policy solutions for the current housing supply and affordability issues facing the country” but warned that “even well-intended policy requirements can negatively impact housing production and exacerbate nationwide housing affordability and availability challenges.”
Organizations to sign the letter, dated March 7, included the CCIM Institute, the Council for Affordable and Rural Housing, the Institute of Real Estate Management, the Manufactured Housing Institute, the Mortgage Bankers Association, the National Apartment Association, the National Association of Home Builders, the National Association of Realtors, the National Leased Housing Association, and the National Multifamily Housing Council.
The letter expressed concern about the Biden Administration’s position supporting a proposed rule from Jessica Rosenworcel, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Rosenworcel’s push to ban bulk billing is part of a wider strategy to promote competition and protect consumers across several agencies, according a recent factsheet put out by the White House.
“This misguided proposal, which was included in the White House Announcement, purportedly lays the groundwork for a rulemaking process at the (FCC) aimed at boosting competition,” the co-signed letter to the president read. “Yet, it would actually do the opposite.”
The letter stated that bulk billing arrangements are “a way to provide residents with a bundled price for broadband services, which is often cheaper, better, faster and more reliable than apartment residents would typically be able to secure in the open market.”
“Banning bulk internet agreements will harm residents, and disincentivize investment in broadband service, especially in rural areas as well as low-income, smaller, and more-affordable rental communities who struggle the most to get connected,” the letter stated. “Bulk billing arrangements are pro-consumer and pro-renter and help support property operations like climate resilience and our shared, long-term goals of improving housing affordability.”
Instead of banning bulk billing, the organizations encouraged policymakers to “support and elevate bulk billing arrangements to leverage historic federal resources to boost broadband access, not upend the residential broadband market and in turn, potentially disconnect millions of American families.”
Click here to read a full copy of the letter.
