Senate Poised to Vote on Housing Legislation

The Senate is poised to vote on a bill aimed at constructing more housing this week, a rare spot of bipartisan agreement.

Lawmakers are eager to see the bill passed given how much support they’ve acquired for the long-awaited legislation, which passed in the Senate last year as part of the National Defense Authorization Act. It was ultimately stripped out of the final version of the bill and now requires a new vote as a stand-alone bill.

The ROAD cleared the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs unanimously last year and is in line with Republican efforts to focus on an affordability agenda.

“We’ve been able to come together to put together provisions to build more housing, which is what we need if we’re actually going to bring prices down,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the ranking Democrat on the Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs and co-sponsor of the bill, told NOTUS last week. “The ROAD to housing passed the committee in July and made it through the whole Senate in October. And so far, Donald Trump and the House have hung it up, and it hasn’t moved forward.”

“When you get unanimous support, then it’s time to move the bill,” she added.

On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed cloture on the Senate Committee’s Housing for the 21st Century Act, a move to end debate on the bill. The motion sets the bill on track for a procedural vote scheduled for Monday.

“We need to do stuff on housing. Sen. Warren — working with Sen. Scott — has done a very good job on ROAD to housing. We hope we can get something passed, House and Senate,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters when asked by NOTUS about the bipartisan coalition pushing for the bill’s passage.

The White House is backing the bill, which in addition to being aimed at constructing more affordable housing also tries to expand homeownership alternatives by speeding up housing development, and streamlining environmental regulations that can pose barriers to housing construction.

“The White House is pleased with the collaboration coming from both chambers and both sides of the aisle as Congress works toward enactment of a housing package,” said Davis Ingle, a spokesperson for the White House, in a statement to NOTUS. “The President has made it clear that he is committed to signing legislation that truly makes purchasing a home affordable again.”

Ingle noted that the president wants to see a provision to ban large institutional investors from purchasing single-family homes added, which is line with the message Trump delivered directly to lawmakers at the State of the Union address on Tuesday.

“We want homes for people, not for corporations,” Trump, who signed an executive order directing agencies to curb support for large investors in single-family homes in January, said.

The Senate’s legislation is the companion bill to legislation passed by the House of Representatives in February. Both packages share similar provisions, but the House’s differs mainly in its focus to improve oversight over HUD and cutting red tape.

Sen. Tim Scott, who chairs the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs and introduced the legislation alongside Warren, did not comment.

“The White House has made it clear that affordability is a central priority, and the ROAD to Housing Act is one of the most effective first steps to increase housing access, expand supply, and lower costs. ROAD provides the largest housing reform package in more than a decade,” Scott said in a statement in December.

But other lawmakers from his party are also eager to see it passed.

“If we can pass the ROAD to Housing Act, we’ll be able to help cut the red tape that exists there. We’ll be able to unlock billions of dollars in private capital,” Sen. Pete Ricketts said of what the bill would do in a floor speech last week. “This will help us create more supply and bring the cost down.”

Lawmakers said the package would be a step forward in addressing the housing crisis.

“It would benefit the builders of affordable housing. It would benefit the buyers of affordable housing. That would help not just in our urban areas, but our rural areas and tribal communities,” Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, who worked on the package and is a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, told NOTUS.

While it has a broad range of support, the housing bill falls far short of what some advocates for additional housing legislation hope to do.

“Is this going to solve all the problems on housing? No,” Sen. Andy Kim, also a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, told NOTUS. But, he added that he is “grateful that we were able to find opportunities to be able to come together in a bipartisan way.”