WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The House passed Congress\u2019 most significant housing legislation in decades on Tuesday, sending the bill to President Trump\u2019s desk \u2014 a bid by both parties to show midterm voters that they\u2019re paying attention to affordability concerns ahead of November\u2019s election.<\/p>\n
The legislation, which the Senate passed Monday, aims to boost the housing supply through dozens of targeted provisions whose effects are expected to be seen over the next several years. In California, measures to unlock some federal block grant dollars for new housing in big cities could be particularly significant.<\/p>\n
The bipartisan agreement over the legislation, after weeks of negotiation, marks a highly unusual collaboration in the divided Congress. It reflects growing public pressure on Washington to address economic issues at a time when Americans\u2019 economic woes are deepening amid inflation, elevated gas prices and the ongoing effects of Trump\u2019s tariffs.<\/p>\n
The bill passed in the House with a 358-32 vote after it was approved by the Senate on Monday in an 85-5 vote. Those opposed in both chambers were Republicans. The Trump administration has signaled support<\/a> for the bill, meaning it will probably become law. <\/p>\n \u201cThis legislation must serve as a foundation for continued action, not the final step in addressing our nation\u2019s housing crisis,\u201d Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), one of the lawmakers who put together the deal, said on the House floor before the vote. <\/p>\n The bill aims to help housing supply by removing regulatory barriers to building affordable housing units, preventing large investors from buying up single-family homes and incentivizing new housing in cities with federal funding, among other measures.<\/p>\n The package focuses on addressing housing supply constraints and making federal programs easier to use, said David Gonzalez Rice, senior vice president of public policy at the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Though the legislation does not create major new funding streams, advocates see the bipartisan acknowledgment of the need for housing reforms as significant.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a big step in the right direction,\u201d Gonzalez Rice said, \u201cand there\u2019s still a lot of work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Addressing cost-of-living issues has become high stakes for lawmakers engaged in midterm reelection campaigns, as Americans increasingly disapprove<\/a> of Trump\u2019s handling of the economy. Democrats are hoping to leverage affordability issues to gain control of at least one chamber of Congress, while Republicans are fighting to maintain their majorities.<\/p>\n It was politically crucial for members of both parties to be able to tell voters they had worked in good faith to address housing affordability, said David Garcia, deputy director of policy at UC Berkeley\u2019s Terner Center for Housing Innovation.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would\u2019ve been hard to justify to voters during their campaigns that their party did not do everything they could to advance the first meaningful legislation on housing policy in decades,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n The legislation was a product of intense bipartisan negotiations led by Waters and Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.), as well as Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.), after months of discussions in both parties about how to address housing<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cThe work has been extraordinary between the majority and minority in this House, answering the call [for] solutions from the American people,\u201d Hill said on the House floor.<\/p>\n Trump \u2014 who has largely dismissed<\/a> the affordability issue, last week calling it \u201ca fake word\u201d \u2014 had indicated support for housing reforms. <\/p>\n In a March statement of policy, the administration indicated it \u201cstrongly supports\u201d passage of the bill, saying it represented \u201csignificant advances in federal housing policy.\u201d Trump also signed an executive order suggesting that regulatory barriers to home building should be removed, a concept reflected in the bill.<\/p>\n The nationwide affordability crisis has been driven for years by rising costs, a shortage of affordable housing, higher mortgage rates and other factors. Recent rising construction costs and labor shortages have exacerbated the issue, according to the National Assn. of Home Builders.<\/p>\n The number of new housing starts in May dropped by more than 15%, according to a report<\/a> last week from the U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development.<\/p>\n