The organizations will also be renewing their lobbying to makesure last year's defeat of themove to tax carried interest as ordinary income is permanent.NMHC/NAA released their 2008 public policy agenda as part of NAA'sannual Capitol Conference, held yesterday.

The underlying, or perhaps better put, unifying, theme to thesevarious initiatives is the organizations' goal to promote asmarter, more balanced national housing policy and more affordablehousing. "For years, America has oversold homeownership as apanacea for all that ails the country, but we are now experiencingthe consequences of that unbalanced approach to our housing andcommunity development challenges," says NMHC/NAA's SVP ofgovernment affairs Jim Arbury. "We will use the lessons learnedfrom the current housing market turmoil to strengthen our calls fora more balanced housing policy that more explicitly recognizes thevalue of rental housing."

Highlights from the legislative agenda will include a request toCongress to provide incentives for energy-efficient and greenbuildings and equipment, and also to fund research to spur energyconservation; opposition to proposals to change the current lawgoverning the tax treatment of carried interests; support ofefforts to reform the estate tax rather than repealing it; and arequest that Congress enact a comprehensive immigration law thatprotects borders and provides a reasonable and enforceable guestworker program.