The United States House of Representatives has passed a substantial infrastructure bill that includes an addendum from New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez repealing the Faircloth Amendment, a 22-year-old regulation that caps the overall number of public housing units that can be built in the United States.

The Moving Forward Act brings much needed funding to surface transportation initiatives, including public transit, provides for rural broadband infrastructure, and aims to spur the creation of green collar jobs.

Among these initiatives is Representative Ocasio-Cortez's amendment, which would begin to allow the federal government to expand the nation's public housing stock after a two decade hiatus. 

Currently, federal authorities are limited in how many public housing units can be built and cannot add to the supply of public housing in the country above the number of public housing units that existed when the Faircloth Amendment was enacted in 1999 by President Bill Clinton. The arrangement means that municipalities must essentially decommission or privatize existing public housing units in order to build new homes so as to not add to the overall total.

Previously on Archinect: "Rep. Ilhan Omar unveils 12 million unit "Homes for All" plan."

Several plans emerged last year, including one from Ocasio-Cortez, focused on improving and expanding the nation's public housing stock. 

The "Homes for All" plan introduced by Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar, for example, calls for building 12 million new public housing and affordable housing units nationwide. AOC and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders also introduced the "Green New Deal for Public Housing Act" that would bring energy retrofits and other upgrades to the country's existing public housing projects. A separate "Housing is Infrastructure Act" proposal from California Senator Kamala Harris and California Representative Maxine Waters would bring over $100 billion in funding for upgrades, repairs, and expansions to existing public housing units, as well.