A broad bill aimed at addressing the nation’s housing problem passed the U.S. Senate Thursday and now heads back to the House of Representatives, where a version passed earlier this year, the AP reported.
The bill passed 89-10 and it would reduce regulations, regulate corporate investors, and expand how housing dollars can be used to build affordable homes and rentals.
Despite the overwhelming bipartisan vote in the Senate, it remains unclear whether the House will pass the legislation again — or if President Donald Trump will sign it.
Called the 21st Century ROAD to Housing act, the bill seeks to combine both the Senate and House’s housing priorities.
The legislation has faced blowback from House Republicans over a provision that would temporarily prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a digital currency until the end of 2030, a measure that would ban institutional investors from buying single-family homes, and other provisions they argue the Senate has watered down compared to the House-passed bill, Politico noted.
Conference Meeting Might be Needed
On Wednesday, in fact, House Speaker Mike Johnson noted a range of problems with the Senate’s bill in a closed-door, conference-wide meeting during the House Republican retreat Wednesday morning in Florida.
Johnson said the House and Senate may have to go into conference negotiations to work out wide policy differences between Republicans in the two chambers, Politico reported, citing four people in the room granted anonymity to describe the private meeting.
Trump, who has backed the bill through the bipartisan negotiations, also slowed its momentum with a declaration last weekend that he would not sign any new measures unless Congress passes legislation that would require voters to show proof of citizenship and end most mail-in balloting.
The Senate is expected to begin consideration of that bill next week. It appears unlikely to pass, however, as all Democrats oppose it.
Meanwhile, House leaders have indicated that they are unlikely to accept the Senate version of the housing legislation and have suggested they could launch a formal conference process to negotiate a final deal between the chambers — a process that could take months.
“We have a housing shortage all across America,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, who worked with Republicans to win overwhelming support from both parties for the legislation. “We need more housing of every kind. More housing for first-time home buyers, more housing for renters, more housing for seniors, more housing for people with disabilities, more rural housing, more urban housing, more, more, and more.”
The legislation, Warren said “will help drive down prices.”
‘Consequential Legislation’
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., led the effort with Warren said ahead of the vote that the Senate could “do what so many people failed to do in this legislative body for the last few decades, and that is pass consequential legislation that makes it easier to become a homeowner.”
House leaders have indicated that they are unlikely to accept the Senate version of the housing legislation and have suggested they could launch a formal conference process to negotiate a final deal between the chambers.
That process could take months, Politico noted.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said ahead of the bill’s passage on Thursday that conference negotiations are a possibility, “but obviously the quickest way to do this would be to pick up the Senate bill and pass it.”
If the White House wants that to happen, Thune noted, “they’ll probably have to make that argument to House leadership.”
The Senate’s bill would give local governments more power on housing issues, allow banks to invest more in affordable housing, and lift limits on the number of units in a public housing development that can receive private financing via Section 8 funding that helps rehabilitate properties.
“You’ve got many provisions in this bill that stop treating the U.S. like one single housing market and start giving local leaders the tools they need to fix their unique regional puzzle,” said Peter Carroll with Cotality, a global data company.
The bill seeks to make homebuilding easier by streamlining some regulations that require environmental reviews and inspections. The bill also eliminates a limit on a grant for emergency shelter beds and street homelessness outreach.
Many affordable housing developers are leaning on manufactured and modular homes that can be transported to areas that need housing, and the legislation also lifts the requirement that they have to be built on a permanent chassis, making the homes easier to build and design.
Advocates Want Investment in Housing
Housing advocacy and policy groups, however, have said they wish it went further by investing money in building more housing and assisting renters.
“This legislation is the product of essentially senators and House members wanting to come up with something that could pass with both Democratic and Republican votes, which means it’s inherently less ambitious,” said Yonah Freemark, a researcher at Urban Institute.
The AP reported that one of the most talked-about provisions of the bill would bar institutional investors from buying single-family homes and it is a top priority for the president.
The bill defines such investors as those who directly or indirectly own 350 or more single-family homes. The AP noted that investors of any size would not be required to sell single-family homes bought before the date that the bill becomes a law.
They would be allowed to buy or build single-family homes if they rent them out, but would be required to sell them to an individual homebuyer after seven years and offer that buyer “price concessions” and give tenants a 30-day “first-look” period when the time comes to sell the home, according to the report.
A conference meeting could mean weeks or more of delay for Congress to pass any housing bill, which is a major piece of the White House’s effort to address cost of living issues ahead of the midterms.
Johnson acknowledged in the closed-door meeting there is not unanimity among House Republicans for the White House priority to ban large investors from buying up single-family homes.
A senior GOP staffer with knowledge of the conversations said the “Senate’s process has really broken down over the last week” and that “a conference seems both unavoidable and very necessary.”
Senator Thinks ‘We’ll Get it Worked Out’
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said: “I don’t think we’ll need a conference. I think we’ll get it worked out.” Kennedy is a member of the Banking Committee.
He added that the Senate has already made changes to accommodate the House, but if “they turn this thing into something out of Alien, then I’ll vote against it.”
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), a senior Banking Committee member, said he still backs the legislation.
“I think it’s a good program,” Rounds said. “And I think when we talk about affordability, I think the President clearly would like to do anything he can to make things affordable again.”
David M. Dworkin, President and CEO of the National Housing Conference (NHC), said in a release that the organization is an important step forward.
“We commend the Senate for passage of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, an important step forward in addressing the severe shortage of affordable housing facing communities across the country. With the country millions of homes short of what is needed and housing costs continuing to rise, it is encouraging to see Congress come together around bipartisan solutions aimed at expanding supply and modernizing key housing programs,” Dworkin said.
“This legislation includes important provisions to boost housing supply, support for state, local, and tribal housing planning, expand manufactured housing, increase the public welfare investment cap, streamline environmental reviews, and modernize the HOME program,” he said. “It also improves interagency coordination, updates USDA’s Rural Housing Service, encourages landlord participation in the Housing Choice Voucher program, reforms disaster recovery, and promotes housing for veterans.”
Dworkin noted that the bill still has work to be done.
“No bill is perfect, but this legislation includes many important policies that will help expand housing supply and improve affordability. Provisions in the bill that could hurt the ability of investors to build tens of thousands of units of rental housing per year will need to be addressed by the House,” he said. “We look forward to continuing to work with the Senate, House, and the Trump Administration to ensure the strongest possible version of the bill ultimately becomes law.”
