The Senate on Monday voted 85-5 to pass the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, a bipartisan measure aimed at lowering housing costs by boosting supply and curbing large-scale investor purchases of single-family homes. The bill now heads to the House of Representatives.
The legislation, which combines aspects of earlier competing House and Senate bills, comes as both parties prepare for November’s midterm elections in which housing affordability is expected to be a major voter concern.
The bill includes a provision Trump has advocated for that would bar investors who already own 350 or more single-family homes from buying additional properties. It would also waive some federal permitting rules to accelerate new construction, authorize pilot programs for home improvement and affordable housing grants, and expand access to manufactured homes and mortgage availability.
MSI previously reported that Trump had called for a ban on large investors buying homes citing affordability concerns, and that White House economists estimated a nationwide housing shortage of roughly 10 million homes.
“The bill is the result of years of work to lower costs, expand housing supply, cut red tape, protect taxpayers, and help more Americans achieve the dream of homeownership,” Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, a Republican who played a key role in advancing the bill, said in a statement.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the committee, said: “The historic 21st Century Road to Housing Act will address our nation’s housing crisis by boosting housing supply, bringing down costs, and for the first time ever stopping private equity from buying up homes.”
Representative Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, called the bill “an important step forward, not the final destination.”
“Congress has finally woken up to the need to prioritize housing affordability and this bill is an important step to reducing costs for Americans,” Waters said. “However, the enactment of this law should not mean the end of our advocacy in Congress for affordable housing. I won’t stop and I call on my colleagues in both chambers not to stop either.”
The bill’s passage comes as Senate Republican leaders face a series of new demands from Trump that have disrupted their legislative agenda. Last week, Trump derailed confirmation proceedings for Jay Clayton, his nominee for director of national intelligence, and halted a parallel effort to reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. He simultaneously demanded that FISA’s renewal be coupled with passage of the Save America Act, which would impose new restrictions on voters nationwide and is opposed by Democrats.