Senate Approves Sweeping Housing Bill

The Senate has cleared a major housing package with strong bipartisan backing, but its path to becoming law is not assured. The bill, the most extensive housing measure to advance through Congress since 1990, passed the Senate 89-10 on Thursday and was sent to the House, the New York Times reports. Co-sponsored by Republican Sen. Tim Scott and Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, it's intended to increase the supply of homes by easing regulations, expanding financing and grants for construction, and updating mortgage standards. It would also curb the role of large institutional investors in the single-family home market, a priority for President Trump, who issued an executive order on the topic in January.

"We need more housing of every kind," Warren said, per the AP. "More housing for first-time home buyers, more housing for renters, more housing for seniors, more housing for people with disabilities, more rural housing, more urban housing, more, more, and more." Despite Trump expressing support, he has threatened to withhold his signature from any legislation until Congress passes stricter voting rules, a demand currently sitting in the Senate. That stance, combined with Republican divisions over the bill's content, clouds its prospects, per the Times. An uncertain reception awaits the measure in the House, where lawmakers in both parties object to changes made by the Senate and to what they describe as a lack of coordination between the chambers.

The legislation responds to mounting voter concern over housing costs: Home prices have risen roughly 50% since the start of the pandemic. Rents also have jumped. Provisions include widening the definition of manufactured housing to allow more factory-built homes, expanding loans for multifamily construction, loosening certain environmental reviews to speed building, and setting new limits on investors that own large numbers of single-family houses. One proposal would bar investors with 350 single-family homes from acquiring more and require new single-family rentals built by investors to be sold after seven years. Some House Republicans argue those rules could discourage new rental development. Several House provisions, including a community banking measure, were dropped in the Senate, raising the prospect of further negotiations.