I 119THCONGRESS 1 STSESSION H. R. 2448 To direct the Secretary of Interior to submit to Congress a report on the National Park Service’s interpretation and application of the Standards for Rehabilitation for use of the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incen- tives program. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MARCH27, 2025 Mr. M AGAZINERintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means A BILL To direct the Secretary of Interior to submit to Congress a report on the National Park Service’s interpretation and application of the Standards for Rehabilitation for use of the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives program. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. REPORT. 3 (a) I NGENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 4 date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall sub-5 mit a report on the Service’s interpretation and applica-6 VerDate Sep 11 2014 16:59 Apr 04, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2448.IH H2448 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 2448 IH tion of the Secretary’s Standards for Rehabilitation per-1 taining to use of the Program to— 2 (1) the Committee on Natural Resources of the 3 House of Representatives; and 4 (2) the Committee on Energy and Natural Re-5 sources of the Senate. 6 (b) C ONTENTS.—The report required under sub-7 section (a) shall include the following: 8 (1) Data on the processing of Program Applica-9 tions during the 10 years immediately before the 10 date of the enactment of this Act, including— 11 (A) the average time a Program Applica-12 tion is in the system, from the date it is sub-13 mitted to the State Historic Preservation Office 14 by the applicant until it is approved or denied 15 by the Service, presented by project size, type, 16 and parts 1, 2, and 3 of the Program Applica-17 tion; and 18 (B) the annual average number of— 19 (i) hold notices annually; 20 (ii) conditions placed on the approval 21 under part 2 of the Program Application; 22 (iii) denied applications; 23 (iv) projects approved under part 2 of 24 the Program Application; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 16:59 Apr 04, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2448.IH H2448 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 2448 IH (v) Program Applications withdrawn. 1 (2) A description of the following: 2 (A) Areas of improvement to and rec-3 ommendations for the Standards to remove bar-4 riers to the development of affordable housing 5 while safeguarding Federal historic preserva-6 tion. 7 (B) Opportunities for the Secretary to up-8 date or provide additional guidance to facili-9 tate— 10 (i) the conversion of nonresidential 11 buildings into housing; 12 (ii) the remediation of environmental, 13 health, and safety hazards; 14 (iii) inclusion of energy efficient up-15 grades and integration of sustainability 16 features; 17 (iv) access for persons with disabil-18 ities; and 19 (v) removal of other barriers to use 20 raised by users and beneficiaries of the 21 Program. 22 (C) The specific steps the Service has 23 taken in the 10 years immediately before the 24 date of the enactment of this Act to improve or 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 16:59 Apr 04, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2448.IH H2448 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 2448 IH clarify the interpretation of the Standards to 1 support affordable housing development. 2 (D) The most frequent issues that Pro-3 gram users, State reviewers, and other stake-4 holders raise when developing affordable hous-5 ing projects and the steps the Service has taken 6 to address those issues, including details of the 7 process of the Service for soliciting, collecting, 8 and incorporating feedback on the Service inter-9 pretation of the Standards. 10 (E) The process that the Service uses to 11 decide when to update guidance, including 12 guidelines, preservation briefs, bulletins regard-13 ing interpretation of the Standards, and tax-in-14 centive guidance, for implementing the Stand-15 ards and whether resource limitations are af-16 fecting the ability of the Service to update such 17 guidance. 18 (3) Recommendations of the Secretary regard-19 ing updates and improvements that can be made to 20 the Standards and the implementation by the Serv-21 ice of the Standards and accompanying guidelines 22 to— 23 (A) make the Program more compatible 24 with affordable housing needs; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 16:59 Apr 04, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2448.IH H2448 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 2448 IH (B) ensure historic properties are protected 1 from climate risk; and 2 (C) take into consideration economic and 3 technical feasibility. 4 (c) D EFINITIONS.—In this section: 5 (1) P ROGRAM.—The term ‘‘Program’’ means 6 the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives 7 program. 8 (2) P ROGRAM APPLICATION .—The term ‘‘Pro-9 gram Application’’ means the Historic Preservation 10 Certification Application. 11 (3) S ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 12 the Secretary of the Interior. 13 (4) S ERVICE.—The term ‘‘Service’’ means the 14 National Park Service. 15 (5) S TANDARDS.—The term ‘‘Standards’’ 16 means the Department of the Interior’s Standards 17 for Rehabilitation for the Federal Historic Preserva-18 tion Tax Incentives program under part 67 of title 19 36, Code of Federal Regulations. 20 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 16:59 Apr 04, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H2448.IH H2448 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS