President is leaning on Congress to tee up an affordability win ahead of Novembers midterm elections, but entrenched GOP disagreement on a sweeping housing proposal threatens to derail it.Â
Trump on Monday called on the House to swiftly approve Senate-passed legislation aimed at easing housing affordability that has languished in the lower chamber for several months. House Republicans, however, have balked at that request and are pitching a rival plan.Â
House Speaker R-La., teased earlier in the week that Republicans and Democrats would come together to bring a “bipartisan, bicameral bill to the presidents desk.” Â
“I think everybody feels like it’s important, so we’re just working out some nuances,” Johnson said.
Senior House lawmakers on Thursday unveiled a modified version of the Senates 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which is expected to receive a vote in the lower chamber as early as next week.Â
Any changes to the Senates proposal would force the upper chamber to consider the measure again, prolonging the timeline lawmakers can send legislation to Trumps desk.
Sen. D-Mass., one of the chief architects of the Senates bill, declined to say whether she was speaking with her counterparts in the House about tweaks to the bill, and argued that lawmakers were running out of time to do something.
“Theres a housing crisis out there,” Warren said. “This bill can pass today if the House would just put it on the floor and vote on it.â©We need to get started, and if the House has more ideas than they’d like to add, start another bill.”Â
Some GOP lawmakers are not sweating the wait.
“We cannot take the Senate bill to the floor,” House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., told Fox News Digital in an interview earlier this week.
The political dynamics are much different in the Senate, however. And the housing bill passed with fewer than a dozen defectors in March â a rare feat in such a hyper-partisan Congress.Â
Senate Majority Leader R-S.D., argued that the easiest route to putting the legislation on Trumps desk is passing the Senates version.
“It’s been sitting over there for a while and the presidents weighed in on it. I think, you know, the White House made it clear, they would like to see the House pick up and pass the Senate bill,” Thune said. “Weve done what we can do. It’s in the court of the House now.”
The House product struck out a controversial provision taking aim at the build-to-rent market that drew the opposition of conservatives, who argued the language amounted to excessive government interference in the housing market.
The clause in the Senates proposal would have specifically required some developers to sell single-family homes built for the purpose of renting within seven years after construction. The build-to-rent industry and opponents of the provision argued their properties provide a more affordable option for some Americans priced out of the housing market and could imperil the supply of rentals across the country.
“Weve got to make sure we do it in a right way that continues to keep free markets,” Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, said, adding that the clause in the Senate bill could make it “impossible” for some people to access housing.
The proposal, however, would also weaken a from purchasing single-family homes â a priority of the Trump administration.
The Houses rival housing bill notably preserves a ban on central bank digital currencies (CBDC) through 2030 that was included in the Senates legislation.
House conservatives raged at the Senate bill for stopping short of enacting a permanent CBDC ban â a top priority of GOP privac
