Last week I was back on Capitol Hill for my second year at the Community Associations Institute’s Congressional Advocacy Summit, meeting with the offices that represent the communities we serve in Dayton, Cincinnati, Columbus and Northern Kentucky.

We sat down with the offices of Representative Greg Landsman, Representative Warren Davidson, Senator Bernie Moreno and Senator Jon Husted, and left materials with Representative Joyce Beatty’s office. Every one of those conversations was substantive. Staff asked good questions, took notes, and asked us to stay in touch. Those relationships are what move issues forward for associations, and we will keep building them.

CAI’s agenda covered a range of issues. We thanked Representative Davidson’s office for his leadership as lead sponsor of H.R. 425, which would repeal the Corporate Transparency Act and the reporting burden it threatened to place on volunteer association boards. We also discussed the Making Condos Safer and Affordable Act, access to affordable insurance for associations, and housing affordability, along with a federal antenna proposal CAI is watching.

Two issues matter most for the communities we manage, though, and those are the two I focused on in every meeting.

Disaster relief for association roads and common areas

After the 2019 Memorial Day tornadoes, federal debris removal stopped at the entrance of many private communities. Association roads carry ambulances, fire trucks and school buses, and they are maintained entirely with owners’ assessments. Under current FEMA rules, they are generally treated as private property.

H.R. 4669, the FEMA Act of 2025, would change that. Section 107, language CAI says it helped draft, removes the discretionary determination that currently governs debris removal on privately owned land.

This bill has real momentum. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved it 57 to 3, and it has 97 cosponsors, including Brett Guthrie and Morgan McGarvey of Kentucky and Troy Balderson and Mike Carey of Ohio. The next step is a vote on the House floor, and that is what we asked the offices to help move forward.

The staff we met understood the issue right away. When you describe a neighborhood where the debris trucks turned around at the entrance, nobody needs much convincing.

A companion bill, H.R. 9159, the Protect Our Homes Act, would make SBA disaster loans available to associations for common area repairs. It is early for that bill, and we are working to build support behind it.

If you want the fuller background on why federal debris money stops at a private entrance, I laid it out before the trip.

Keeping condominium mortgages available

This was the most engaged conversation of the day. Staff wanted to understand how an association ends up on the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ineligible list, and what that means for an owner trying to sell or refinance. Representative Davidson serves on the House Financial Services Committee, which oversees housing finance, so that office was an especially good fit for this discussion.

Here is the issue. On January 4, 2027, Fannie Mae’s minimum replacement reserve allocation rises from 10 percent to 15 percent of annual budgeted assessment income. Earlier this year, the Limited Review option was retired, and lenders now verify that a budget carries the highest recommended reserve allocation in the reserve study.

Well-funded reserves are good for every community. The concern is timing. Many boards set their 2027 budgets months before these standards were finalized, and an association that falls out of eligibility can leave owners unable to sell to buyers using conventional financing.

On July 9, CAI, the Community Home Lenders of America and the National Association of Mortgage Brokers asked the Federal Housing Finance Agency for a one-year delay. Our ask was for these offices to support that request with FHFA, so associations have time to adjust without putting their owners’ home values at risk.

What your board can do now

While that conversation continues in Washington, there is a lot a board can do on its own.

Know where your association stands. Lenders confirm Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac eligibility through Condo Project Manager and Condo Project Advisor, and a lender can run that check well before anyone lists a unit. A board is far better off learning about a problem at the board table than in the middle of an owner’s sale.

Compare your 2027 reserve contribution to the highest recommended figure in your reserve study, not the baseline figure. If there is a gap, it is far easier to address while you are adopting a budget.

If deferred maintenance or an open structural item could affect eligibility, get it scoped and on the calendar.

And if these issues matter to your community, let your members of Congress know. A board president describing a specific community is one of the most effective voices there is. You can find your U.S. Representative by ZIP code and contact your U.S. Senators directly through their websites.

What comes next

Advocacy is a long game, and each year builds on the last. We will follow up with each of these offices, keep them informed with real examples from the communities we manage, and keep making the case for the associations and homeowners we serve across Ohio and Northern Kentucky.

I am grateful to the staff who gave us their time, and to CAI for making these meetings possible.

If you serve on a board and want help reaching your own member of Congress, email me. We would be glad to help.