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HR 7701
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Public Housing Rent Reduction for First Responders Act

To amend the United States Housing Act of 1937 to reduce rent in public housing for police officers, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians.

Introduced Feb 25, 2026

Latest action (Feb 25, 2026) Referred to the House Committee on Financial Services.

Referred to
Financial Services Committee
Policy area
Housing and Community Development
Issues
Housing

Summary

This Act amends the United States Housing Act of 1937 to reduce rent in public housing for police officers, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians. Under the Act, families where one or more members work full-time as police officers, firefighters, or emergency medical technicians will pay the lower of either 15 percent of monthly adjusted income or 5 percent of monthly income as rent. The rent reduction applies to full-time employees of Federal, State, local, or Indian tribal government agencies, as determined by public housing authorities. This provides a lower rent calculation for qualifying first responders compared to the standard public housing rent formula.

AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.

Sponsor (1)

Actions (2)
  1. Feb 25, 2026 Referred to the House Committee on Financial Services. · house
  2. Feb 25, 2026 Introduced in House

Similar bills (6)

Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.

  • HR 8789 — Volunteer First Responder Housing Act · Introduced May 13, 2026 · Cong. 119 66%
  • HR 7360 — To amend the United States Housing Act of 1937 to permanently authorize the emergency safety and security grant program, and for other purposes. · Introduced Feb 4, 2026 · Cong. 119 63%
  • HR 4060 — Service Member Housing Relief Act · Introduced Jun 20, 2025 · Cong. 119 61%
  • S 4737 — Volunteer First Responder Housing Act · Introduced Jun 10, 2026 · Cong. 119 61%
  • HR 308 — Low Income Housing for Defense Communities Act · Introduced Jan 9, 2025 · Cong. 119 59%
  • HR 6008 — Bring Down Housing Costs Act · Introduced Nov 10, 2025 · Cong. 119 57%

Full text

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

February 25, 2026

Mr. Lawler introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services

A BILL

To amend the United States Housing Act of 1937 to reduce rent in public housing for police officers, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “Public Housing Rent Reduction for First Responders Act”.

SEC. 2. SUPPORTING AFFORDABILITY AND SAFETY FOR PUBLIC SERVANTS.

Section 3(a) of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437a(a)) is amended—

(1) in paragraph (1), by striking “Except as provided in paragraph (2)” and inserting “Except as provided in paragraphs (2) and (4)”; and

(2) in paragraph (4)—

(A) in the heading, by striking “Occupancy by police officers” and inserting, “Occupancy by police officers, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians”;

(B) by redesignating subparagraph (C) as subparagraph (D);

(C) by inserting after subparagraph (B) the following:

“(C) Rental payments.—Notwithstanding paragraph

(1), a family of which one or more members are a police officer, firefighter, or emergency medical technician shall pay as rent for a dwelling unit assisted under this Act the highest of the following amounts, rounded to the nearest dollar:

“(i) 15 per centum of the family’s monthly adjusted income; or

“(ii) 5 per centum of the family’s monthly income”; and

(D) by amending subparagraph (D), as so redesignated, to read as follows:

“(D) Definitions.—In this paragraph:

“(i) Police officer.—The term ‘police officer’ means any person determined by a public housing agency to be, during the period of residence of that person in public housing, employed on a full-time basis as a duly licensed professional police officer by a Federal, State, or local government or by any agency thereof (including a public housing agency having an accredited police force).

“(ii) Firefighter.—The term ‘firefighter’ means any person determined by a public housing agency to be, during the period of residence of that person in public housing, employed on a full-time basis as a firefighter by a fire department or emergency medical services responder unit of the Federal Government, a State, unit of general local government, or an Indian tribal government.

“(iii) Emergency medical technician.—The term ‘emergency medical technician’ means any person determined by a public housing agency to be, during the period of residence of that person in public housing, employed on a full- time basis as an emergency medical technician by a fire department or emergency medical services responder unit of the Federal Government, a State, unit of general local government, or an Indian tribal government.”. <all>

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