Senate Passes Housing Bill With Bipartisan Support

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act breezed through the Senate on Thursday. Whether or not it becomes law is a separate issue.

The chamber’s landmark housing bill coasted through the legislature by a 89-10 vote, The Hill reported. Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz was the lone member of his party to vote against the bill, which received overwhelming bipartisan support.

Sens. Tim Scott and Elizabeth Warren shepherded the bill through the Senate. It received some pushback from the homebuilding industry, though: the National Association of Home Builders was particularly unhappy with a provision that requires investors to sell built-to-rent and renovated-to-rent homes within a seven-year period.

Other features of the bill include incentives to construct homes, a program to push abandoned buildings towards development and housing grants. Critically, it also includes a provision modeled after the White House’s recent executive order to force institutional investors out of further purchases in the housing market.

That’s one of the many parts of the bill that need to be reconciled with the Housing for the 21st Century Act, which passed through the House of Representatives last month. There’s already infighting between the two chambers about how negotiations in each body have unfolded for what could become the first major federal housing legislation in decades.

Another provision that needs to be reconciled is whether or not a central bank digital currency ban in the acts should be permanent or temporary.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune expressed hope that the House would pick up the Senate’s bill and pass it, rather than navigate the reconciliation process. Thune also suggested more involvement from the administration could help that happen, though Donald Trump’s White House appears to have its hands full with the SAVE America Act and the conflict in the Middle East.

The NAHB is among those calling for a conference after the Senate passage, hoping to eliminate the requirement to sell rental properties within seven years.

— Holden Walter-Warner