House pushes for vote on amended housing bill next week 

Portions of the legislation were stripped and others added, which Financial Services Committee members, including Chairman French Hill (R-AR) and ranking member Maxine Waters (D-CA), contend more fairly represent the housing priorities of their chamber.

“Over the last couple of months, we’ve heard clear concerns from hundreds of members and stakeholders, and this bipartisan amendment reflects that feedback,” Hill said on Thursday. “It cuts unnecessary barriers to new home construction, modernizes HUD programs, and allows banks to more freely deploy funding into their communities.”

The amended legislation represents a possible flash point with the Senate, which has been urging the House to take up its version of the bill without changes. Notably, President Donald Trump has also urged the same.

Trump on Monday night posted a message on social media calling on the House to vote for the Senate housing legislation. 

“I am asking Congress to pass that Bill, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which would ensure that homes are for people, not Corporations,” Trump said. “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

But the House is forging ahead with the changes anyway.

One key change in the legislation involves the ban on institutional investors purchasing single-family homes. Crucially, the ban would remain in place, but the new language narrows the definition of a single-family home and nixed a controversial provision on build-to-rent homes.

The Senate bill initially contained language that would require investors in build-to-rent homes to sell those houses within seven years. Housing experts argued it would decrease the housing stock, and industry groups have come out hard against the proposal.

The provision was heavily criticized by influential groups like the National Association of Home Builders and the National Multifamily Housing Council.

The House’s revised bill strips that provision.

The Washington Examiner caught up with Sharon Wilson Geno, president of the National Multifamily Housing Council, on Thursday after the updated language was released. She said her group was happy the provision was nixed.

“I mean, obviously, we are pleased that the House understood better the BTR issue specifically,” Wilson Geno said.

A group of organizations representing the nation’s rental housing providers, including the NAHB and NMHC, also sent a letter to congressional leadership on Thursday signaling support for the House’s revised bill. They said the revision safeguards the “development of hundreds of thousands of rental homes.” 

“Professional housing providers and the sources of capital that support them are an important resource for Americans who need more housing options,” the letter said. “This legislation will help preserve flexible housing options for renters, ease affordability challenges and provide more opportunity for households on the path toward homeownership.”

During a Thursday call with reporters, a GOP aide with the House Financial Services Committee said the Senate version of the housing bill had a “math problem” in the House. The aide said the new version was an effort to keep the Senate’s housing bill intact while also reflecting the priorities of the House, as well as member and stakeholder feedback.

The Senate’s housing bill also includes language, aimed at appeasing conservatives, that applies a temporary ban on central bank digital currencies.

A CBDC is a form of digital currency issued by a central bank. In the United States, that would be the Federal Reserve. Consumers would be able to use digital money issued directly by the Fed in addition to cash. Proponents of a CBDC argue that a centralized dollar would help prevent bank bailouts and increase efficiency.

But opponents, many of whom are Republicans, contend that it could give the Fed too much power or could raise Fourth Amendment concerns, depending on how much control the government would have over individual accounts.

Some in the House were upset the ban wasn’t made permanent, and, notably, even the House’s revised version retains the sunset provision through 2030.

Also, the House added a dozen community banking provisions that were not included in the Senate’s version but were a priority for Hill.

Trump, who is in China, has not responded to the House’s move to amend the Senate bill. But on the Senate side, Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) is still holding to the position that the House should pass the Senate’s version of the bipartisan legislation.

“As Chairman Scott has said many times, it is time for the House to support President Trump and pass the 21st Century Road to Housing Act unamended,” a spokesman for the Banking Committee said in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner.

One senior Senate GOP aide pointed out to the Washington Examiner on Thursday just how wide a margin the housing bill passed by in the upper chamber.

“Any changes made by the House, which go directly against what President Trump himself has said he wants passed, would threaten to tear apart the bipartisan support in the Senate,” the aide warned. “It’s past time the House brings the Senate bill to the floor without changes.”