WASHINGTON — The Senate voted overwhelmingly Monday to pass a sweeping housing affordability bill aimed at lowering costs, putting Congress on the brink of a rare bipartisan victory in President Donald Trump’s second term.
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The vote was 85-5. Several senators missed the vote due to severe thunderstorms in the Washington area that led to a ground stop at Ronald Reagan National Airport.
The legislation, which would make it easier to build homes and slap limits on Wall Street investors’ buying up houses, now goes to the House, which hopes to vote on it in the next few days. Then, it would go to Trump’s desk to be signed into law.
The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act would be a desperately needed win for Republicans, who have seen their 2026 midterm election prospects deteriorate throughout the year as voters believe Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress haven’t done enough to tackle the cost of living.
A mid-June poll by The Associated Press found that Trump’s overall approval rating is 37%, dragged down by the fact that just 33% said they approve of his handling of the economy. Other surveys have shown him getting low marks on handling the cost of living, the main issue that powered him to victory in 2024. And a June NBC News poll showed nearly 80% of U.S. voters believe the “American Dream” is harder to achieve than it was a generation ago.
The bill represents a tangible victory on a top affordability concern. The “four corners” deal reached last week among key committee chairs, which was blessed by party leaders, brought together an eclectic mix of lawmakers from all over the ideological spectrum. It was negotiated by Sens. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Reps. French Hill, R-Ark., and Maxine Waters, D-Calif.
The legislation would approve a series of funding and grant programs for constructing new homes. It would slash red tape and empower local governments to expedite reviews to build more housing. And a key section titled “Homes Are For People, Not Corporations” would restrict any “large institutional investor” from buying single-family homes.
The bill was stranded for months on Capitol Hill after the Senate passed a version in March and the House approved a different version in May. The final package came together after the Senate agreed to add a series of provisions sought by the House while dropping a provision the House objected to, which would have required large investors that construct or own at least 350 single-family homes to sell them after seven years.
There’s something in the bill for just about everyone to like.
Republicans have focused on the provisions to reduce mandatory regulations, with Hill calling the bill a “meaningful step toward increasing housing supply, improving affordability, and helping more Americans achieve homeownership.”
Democrats like Warren have celebrated the restraints on institutional investors, saying the bill is about “stopping private equity from buying up homes” and raising costs for consumers.
Trump had championed provisions to “ban large Wall Street investment firms” from “buying up in the thousands single-family homes,” as he put it in this year’s State of the Union speech.
White House spokesman Davis Ingle said the Trump administration is “proud to have worked alongside our partners in Congress to move this legislation forward that advances the President’s housing affordability agenda.”
To the frustration of some Republicans, the achievement has been overshadowed by Trump’s actions on other issues.
His on-again, off-again Iran deal has dominated headlines this week and sparked unusual backlash from within his own party. Capitol Hill is consumed by his recent moves that led to the expiration of the FISA Section 702 warrantless surveillance program and his demand to stall his own nominee for intelligence chief, Jay Clayton, a key piece of the puzzle to revive the FISA law. There’s also considerable attention on a domestic drama about Trump’s costly — and so far failed — renovation plan to turn the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool blue.
Apart from his State of the Union comment on the investor provision, Trump had not been personally engaged in developing the bill, Republican lawmakers say, which caused the process to drag on for months before the negotiators resolved the disputes.
“I don’t think it would be a news flash to observe that the president hasn’t really been very hands-on in getting this bill across the finish line,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said one day before a deal was reached. “I had a whole meeting with him about it — a couple, three weeks ago. And he would like to see something passed, but to my knowledge, he hasn’t been on the telephone.”
“You’ll never get a bill — you gentlemen know this better than I do — that everybody loves and gives everybody an orgasm,” he told reporters. “You just gotta do the best you can.”
