Senate Passes Housing Bill, Setting Stage for Final House Vote

The Senate has passed its final version of a major bipartisan housing bill, setting the stage for a final approval in the House.

The 21st Century Road to Housing Act easily passed its final vote in the Senate Monday night, by a vote of 85-5. This a few days after leaders in the Senate and the House announced a bipartisan compromise on the bill’s 45 provisions, all of which are aimed at cutting red tape and encouraging construction of more homes.

One final vote remains, where the House concurs in the Senate’s amendments to the bill. Then Congress can send it to President Donald Trump‘s desk. The House has the bill on its schedule Tuesday, where it can be considered under suspension of the rules. That might allow for an expedited process to move the bill quickly.

Members of both parties hailed the compromise as a rare move of bipartisanship. The bill’s four major proponents are House Financial Services Committee Chair Rep. French Hill (R-Arkansas) and ranking member Rep. Maxine Waters (D-California); as well as Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee Chair Sen. Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) and Ranking Member Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts).

“Housing affordability starts with supply, and this bill makes meaningful progress toward building more homes and lowering costs for American families,” Hill said Monday night.

The bill includes new restrictions targeting large institutional investors in the housing market, a major priority for Trump. Several provisions of that ban were softened or eased after a revolt from the build-for-rent industry, which worried it would stifle construction.

Late-stage negotiations in the bill also brought additional financial regulation, including some deregulating aiming at helping small banks and credit unions pick up the pace of mortgage lending.

“Credit unions make homeownership possible for millions of members, and we are encouraged by lawmakers’ efforts to focus on practical solutions,” Scott Simpson, CEO of America’s Credit Unions said in a statement.

Tristan Navera is a senior reporter on housing policy, covering trends and solutions in the housing market from Washington, DC. He was previously a senior reporter at Bloomberg Law, and before that covered real estate for the Washington Business Journal. Earlier in his career, he spent a decade reporting on business and real estate in Dayton and Columbus, OH. A Cincinnati native, he holds a journalism degree from Ohio University.