S.Amdt. 4535

The Housing Tariff Exclusion Act is an amendment intended to be added to bill S. 1383. Its purpose is to address the housing affordability crisis by reducing the cost of building new homes.

The amendment aims to change the bill by adding a process for the Secretary of Commerce to exclude certain building materials from specific duties. This is based on the sense of Congress that there is a severe shortage of home supply and that tariffs on key building materials add billions of dollars to construction costs, making it more expensive for people to buy or rent homes.

Key additions include:

• Exclusion Process: The Secretary of Commerce will create a way for U.S. entities to request that certain "covered articles" (products used in home construction) be exempt from "covered duties."
• Criteria for Exclusion: Articles will be excluded if they are "critical homebuilding products" or if the Secretary finds that the duty increases home construction costs and the exclusion can be managed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
• Timelines: Requests for critical products must be decided within 15 days, and other requests within 60 days.
• Retroactive Relief: The act allows for the reliquidation of duties for entries made after the act's enactment but before the exclusion was officially issued.
• Accountability: The Secretary must publish results of exclusion requests online and provide quarterly reports to the Senate Committee on Finance and the House Committee on Ways and Means.