With President Donald Trump’s stamp of approval, the House overwhelmingly passed its version of a housing bill Wednesday, softening the Senate’s proposed restrictions around large-scale landlords and developers.
The bill, passed 396-13, now goes back to the upper chamber, which passed its own housing bill two months ago — also with Trump’s support. The House bill stripped out a controversial provision from the Senate version that would force big developers to sell off homes built as rentals to families after seven years. The policy faced fierce backlash in the House and among industry groups that aggressively lobbied against it, arguing that it would hamper investment.
The package, which would fast-track housing development by removing regulatory requirements and overhauling federal housing programs to better support the construction of new homes, is a key agenda item for Republicans and Trump ahead of the midterm elections.
Housing policy is also a rare spot for bipartisanship in this Congress. But the reform effort had been stalled for weeks due to disagreements between the Senate, House and White House.
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Trump wanted limits on institutional investors’ ownership of single-family homes. So did the Senate. The House didn’t include them until this week — finally earning the White House’s stamp of approval after it mirrored the Senate’s language on private equity ownership of single-family homes.
The House also added prevailing wage protections to the package to satisfy labor unions and removed language included in the Senate-passed bill that would have required large developers to sell build-to-rent properties seven years after construction.
House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill characterized the changes as “modest amendments” that preserve the president’s vision and the Senate’s intent.
“We listened to public comment, immense public comment over the last few weeks, and we modified old Section 901 of the institutional investor ban,” said Hill, an Arkansas Republican.
House lawmakers said they had to amend the Senate version in order to get the bill passed in their chamber.
“It speaks positively about our committee, how we work in a bipartisan way,” Republican Rep. Mike Flood of Nebraska, who is a member of the committee and worked on the bill, told NOTUS ahead of the vote. “We see an opportunity to deliver for the American people … put together a truly bipartisan and hopefully bicameral product.”
California Rep. Maxine Waters, who led the effort from the House Democratic side, did not respond to NOTUS’ questions on Capitol Hill.
“Democracy demands debate and discussion,” Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, who was also heavily involved in the talks, told NOTUS ahead of the Wednesday vote. Asked about the amendment made by the House, he said the collaboration between the two parties is a statement that “Congress can still work.”
Despite the administration’s recent endorsement of the House package, its future is uncertain in the Senate. Sens. Tim Scott and Elizabeth Warren, the Republican and Democrat who spearheaded the Senate’s version that passed in March, said in a joint statement Wednesday that “there’s still work to be done.”
“The Senate passed a strong, bipartisan housing bill because families across this country need relief,” they said. “We are committed to continuing to work with the White House and our colleagues in the House on a housing bill that can pass the Senate and get to the President’s desk.”
Hill said the president “would sign” the House’s bill, but that consensus is needed in both chambers.
“The ball is now in the court of public opinion,” he added. “I’d be willing to participate in any conversation at any level of the federal government to see if we can move this forward.”
At least 11 major industry groups, including the National Multifamily Housing Council and the National Association of Home Builders, urged the Senate to pass the legislation as-is. Housing advocates also celebrated the passage.
“We have reached the moment for both chambers to find common ground so that a final package can be sent to President Trump for his signature,” Dennis Shea, executive vice president and chair of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Terwilliger Center for Housing Policy, told NOTUS in a statement.
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