The Build Housing, Unlock Benefits, and Services (Build HUBS) Act would reform the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) and Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) programs, two federal loan programs that help finance large transportation and infrastructure projects. If enacted, these updates would make the programs more usable for real-world transit-oriented development (TOD) projects.
Specifically, the Build HUBS Act would improve the two programs by:

• Allowing measures of project creditworthiness other than an investment-grade rating under the TIFIA program
• Creating a delegated origination and underwriting model for both RRIF and TIFIA in which delegated originator-servicers perform origination, underwriting, and servicing under DOT supervision
• Creating a new attainable housing project designation that would allow projects where a majority of residential units are affordable to people at 80 percent of AMI, and all units are under 120 percent AMI to access financing at 1/2 the Treasury rate, and extending the authorization for both programs to fund TOD projects
• Providing relief on certain requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act, including for office-to-residential conversion and infill development
• Making a collection of important administrative adjustments, including changes aimed at streamlining the loan consideration process, providing clarity on fees and MPO coordination requirements, and clarifying the definition of TOD to better capture the wide range of types of transportation assets that can anchor TOD across communities of all sizes