What to know about housing legislative package passed by Congress
The bill awaits President Donald Trump's signature.
The House on Tuesday followed the Senate in passing a sweeping housing reform package and sent the bipartisan measure to President Donald Trump’s desk for his signature.
The vote in the House was 358-32. The 21st Century Road to Housing Act was brought up under suspension and reached the required two-thirds majority threshold for passage. The 32 no votes were all Republicans while all Democrats present voted in favor.
The Senate voted 85-5 to pass the bill a day earlier.
With midterm elections months away, Congress is taking noteworthy and rare bipartisan action to tackle one element of affordability, a talking point in races across the country this year.
The bill comes as a recent Zillow analysis found the cost of buying a starter home is $1 million or more in a record 242 cities across the country.
What is in the bill?
The legislation aims to address the nation's housing shortage by increasing the supply of homes and overall homeownership. This is achieved through loosening regulations to encourage housing construction and limiting Wall Street investors' ability to buy homes that could go to families instead.
A 2024 study from the government-sponsored housing enterprise Freddie Mac estimated that U.S. faces a shortfall of 3.7 million units contributing to its housing crisis.
The bill also provides grants to turn vacant buildings into affordable housing.
By increasing the supply of homes for sale, the legislation is intended to lower home costs for Americans.
What's next for the bill?
The bill must go to the desk of President Donald Trump to become law.
On Wednesday, Trump said he is putting off signing the bipartisan housing reform bill until Congress passes his SAVE America Act.
Trump was slated to sign the legislation at noon on Wednesday on Capitol Hill.
He canceled the event a few hours before it was due to start, announcing his ultimatum on social media.
"Today’s Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency," the president wrote in a post.
Trump has insisted since March that he will not sign any legislation until the SAVE America Act is sent to his desk. In a social media post on March 8, Trump wrote that it "supersedes everything else."
What did the bill's supporters say about the housing act?
"Today's vote proves that it is possible to find bipartisan common ground on legislation that actually helps the American people, and importantly, it proves that bipartisan legislation doesn't have to be the weakest, most milquetoast agreement that doesn't offend anyone or do too much to help anyone," Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, said on the Senate floor ahead of Monday's vote.
"I don't say this a lot, but today I'm proud to be a member of the United States Senate," Warren said.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sen. Tim Scott, a Republican from South Carolina, discussed how the bill can give Americans more options on Monday.
"When you put more housing supply on the market, more people have a chance to become first-time homebuyers," he said. "Today, the average first-time homebuyer is 40 years old. That is just too old."
What did the bill's opponents say about it?
Republican Sens. Ron Johnson (Wisc.), Mike Lee (Utah), Rand Paul (Ky.), Rick Scott (Fla.) and Tommy Tuberville (Ala.) voted against the legislation. Over the weekend, Sen. Rick Scott explained his objection to the legislation, saying he can't see how the government can drive down the cost of housing.
"What's going to drive down the U.S. cost of housing, two things, if you balance a budget, interest rates are going to come down, one of the biggest with lousing," Scott said on Fox News' Saturday in America. "Number two, most of regulation with respect to housing is not the federal level. It's at the local level, what cities and counties are doing. The federal government cannot drive the cost of housing down."
ABC News' Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.
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