House GOP Scraps Bipartisan Housing Act from Defense Bill

A bipartisan push to juice housing supply hit a wall in the House.

Republican leaders stripped a broad affordability package from a must-pass defense bill, putting one of Washington’s few cross-aisle housing efforts into limbo, Realtor.com reported.

The Senate tucked the Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream (ROAD) to Housing Act into its version of the National Defense Authorization Act back in October. The package drew rare unanimity from the Senate Banking Committee and joint backing from ideological opposites Sen. Tim Scott and Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Its provisions read like an industry wish list: more federal support for zoning reform, streamlined environmental reviews and greater oversight of housing programs to speed development.

This week, however, House Republicans released their NDAA text without the housing language, arguing they’d rather negotiate a standalone bill that reflects the chamber’s priorities. The move came despite Scott’s push to keep the measures attached to the must-pass legislation, which would’ve virtually guaranteed enactment.

House Financial Services chair French Hill said his caucus wants its own version and will start drafting one this month.

Warren slammed the decision, framing it as a break from President Donald Trump’s stated goal of lowering housing costs. Scott was more measured in the lead-up to the House decision but warned the country can’t “sit on the sidelines” as families wrestle with record prices.

Industry groups didn’t hide their disappointment.

The National Association of Home Builders urged lawmakers to revive the bipartisan effort early next year, saying supply constraints are still choking construction.

The National Association of Realtors struck a diplomatic tone, saying it was optimistic that a bipartisan deal is still alive and reminding lawmakers it recently testified in favor of more than 40 bills aimed at expanding affordability and access to capital.

Developers and lenders had been eyeing the ROAD Act’s zoning provisions in particular. One section would’ve tasked HUD with creating model land-use guidelines — not mandates, but a federal template pro-housing officials could wield in local zoning fights.

The bill also promised faster environmental reviews, a long-standing bottleneck for large-scale residential projects.

— Holden Walter-Warner