While the House-passed tax reform bill would repeal the new markets tax credit, the Senate continues to take steps in the opposite direction in unison with their efforts to preserve the credit.

Such a move would wipe out a stream of financing that has played a vital role in economic development projects in lower income communities such as the Generations Family Health Center built in Willimantic, the poorest rural area of the state, which covers 33 towns and serves more than 40,000 patient visits annually.

The bill would also bring the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under the congressional appropriations process.

The NMTC program, which provides a critical stream of financing for economic development projects in low-income areas, and is set to run through 2019, has been in jeopardy for most of the year.

President Donald Trump’s proposed fiscal 2018 budget, released in May, had eliminated funding for the CDFI program.

According to the NMTC Coalition, the program has resulted in $361.4 million in NMTC allocations between 2003 and 2015, which leveraged an additional $479.1 million from other funding sources for a total of $840.5 million in project investments. During this same time period, a total of 28 businesses and economic revitalization projects in Connecticut received NMTC financing, and more than 9,600 jobs have been created.