On Wednesday, the House of Representatives approved a big housing bill, which contained a number of issues that President Trump had vocally supported; a fair number of Democrats voted for the housing bill anyway, with the measure passing by a 396-13 vote.
That’s something you don’t see every day.
The House passed a sweeping housing bill backed by President Donald Trump on Wednesday, handing Republicans a potential affordability win ahead of November’s midterms.
Lawmakers voted overwhelmingly 396-13 to send the bipartisan measure aimed at boosting housing supply and homeownership to the Senate, where it will need final sign-off before being signed into law by the president.
“The White House supports the House’s housing bill thanks to the changes that were made,” a White House official told Fox News Digital.
Here’s the catch (there’s always a catch).
The amended House bill’s future remains uncertain in the Senate, where it will need to overcome a 60-vote threshold and potential frustration over the lower chamber’s modifications.
The final House bill struck out a controversial provision in the Senate-passed measure that required single-family homes owned by large investors for the purpose of renting to be sold off within seven years.
Critics argued the measure could reduce housing supply and would hurt the build-to-rent industry, which provides rental options for Americans priced out of homeownership.
The package preserved a ban on large institutional investors from buying new single-family homes. That provision is a top priority of the Trump administration, as well as leading progressives, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who argues it would help individual homebuyers compete with well-funded investors.
Requiring an investor or investment firm to sell a property within a certain deadline may be a bridge too far, and evidently, a majority of the House of Representatives found it so, although they kept the other related provision barring investment firms from buying new homes to be used as rentals.
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Currently, about 18-20 percent of single-family homes are owned by investors, although it’s unclear how many of those are major corporate investment firms or just small business ventures wherein families are supplementing their incomes with a rental house or two.
Following the bill’s passage, Republican Speaker Mike Johnson (LA-04) and the House Majority Leader, Republican Steve Scalise (LA-01), offered some remarks.
“Increased housing costs and lack of quality supply are two issues that impact nearly every American family,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said at a news conference on Wednesday, adding that the House measure is a “strong bipartisan package that will put more American families into homes.”
“This is something that every American in this country is going to be happy to see, to have lower housing costs,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said.
The bill now goes to the Senate, where its fate is less certain. Still, if the overwhelming House vote is any indication, this may well pass the Senate as well, despite the House’s striking of the Senate’s “must-sell” provision. And, assuming that Senate Democrats can set aside their Stage V Trump Derangement Syndrome to pass a bill that the president is sure to call a victory.
