Washington– A bipartisan bill aimed at making homes more affordable for Americans is now law, despite not being signed by President Donald Trump on Friday.
Supporters describe the Pathway to 21st Century Housing Act as the most comprehensive housing reform in at least 30 years.
The law prohibits corporate investors who own more than 350 homes from purchasing additional properties.
It also increases access to small dollar mortgages for low-income buyers.
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Rep. Sam Liccardo, D-Calif., said the bill is not the complete solution to America’s housing problems — but it is a start.
“This will not provide immediate relief to tens of millions of families struggling to pay rent,” Liccardo said. “We need to do more. And so, this is certainly a good set of steps, but they are necessary but not sufficient.”
The measure became law after sitting on Trump’s desk for 10 days without any action.
Trump allowed a bipartisan housing bill approved by Congress to become law without his signature, saying Friday that he refuses to put his name on it because of how little progress has been made in passing a strict voter ID bill he has been pushing.
Trump said on social media: “I will not sign the housing bill, which Congress fully approved and sent to the White House, in protest of the fact that the US Senate is unable to pass the Save America Act.”
Trump had 10 days until Friday’s deadline to sign the bill, issue a veto or allow the measure to take effect without his signature. He chose to let the measure become law without his explicit approval, undermining his administration’s claims that he views it as an anti-inflation priority.
Trump’s rejection of bipartisan housing legislation exacerbates tensions with his party in a midterm election year and hampers their efforts to address key voters’ concerns about rising costs. His post comes more than a week after he canceled his plans to sign the bipartisan legislation, announcing that he was using it as leverage in his campaign for a strict voter ID bill.
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The Pathway to 21st Century Housing Act aims to lower the cost of housing and stimulate more homebuilding. It is the broadest federal effort in decades to address America’s housing affordability problems, where state and local regulations have made it difficult to build in many communities that are also sources of job growth and economic opportunity. White House economists earlier this year estimated a national shortfall of 10 million homes and the bill could help close part of that gap.
But Trump called the bill a “yawn” and “completely unimportant” compared to legislation that would require proof of citizenship for all voters.
He stunned Republican lawmakers on June 24, when he announced, shortly before a planned signing ceremony at the Capitol, that he would not approve the bill until lawmakers approved first-time voting legislation.
This bill, the Save America Act, does not have enough support from Republicans to pass.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Los Angeles, said after introducing the housing bill to the White House that he told Trump he should get “the fattest black mark you have, and sign your name big on it.”
“I hope he signs it,” Johnson told reporters at the time. “If he doesn’t, this will still be law. We’ll still celebrate it.”
He said he also understood that Trump was trying to emphasize that the election bill was the top priority. “And I think he does that very effectively,” Johnson said.
However, Trump’s decision not to sign the bill gave Democrats an opportunity to criticize him on the issue of affordability.
“His priorities couldn’t be clearer: higher costs for families and more power for himself,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said on X.
The Senate approved the housing bill by a vote of 85-5, and the House approved it by a vote of 358-32.
The legislation seeks to lower federal housing rules, reduce environmental reviews, speed up home construction and limit the ability of companies to purchase single-family homes.
The bill does not address all the causes of the country’s housing problems, including a shortage of construction workers, high insurance costs and wages that have not risen fast enough for renters and buyers.
But the bill received support from the real estate industry and housing advocates.
The US housing market has been a driver of recent affordability challenges, with skyrocketing prices keeping aspiring buyers out of the market. The median sales price rose 1.8% in June from a year earlier to $440,600, an all-time high according to data dating back to 1999, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday.
ABC7 Eyewitness News contributed to this report.
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