{"id":86401,"date":"2026-06-24T18:32:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T22:32:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/trump-blocks-bipartisan-housing-bill-demanding-voter-id-law-first\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T18:32:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T22:32:51","slug":"trump-blocks-bipartisan-housing-bill-demanding-voter-id-law-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/trump-blocks-bipartisan-housing-bill-demanding-voter-id-law-first\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Blocks Bipartisan Housing Bill, Demanding Voter ID Law First"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A wide-ranging piece of legislation designed to make housing more affordable and accelerate home construction cleared Congress with strong bipartisan backing this week \u2014 but it’s now stalled because President Donald Trump is refusing to sign it.<\/p>

The White House had previously expressed support for the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. However, on Wednesday, Trump called off the bill’s signing ceremony, announcing he would withhold his signature until Congress sends him legislation requiring all voters to prove citizenship.<\/p>

The bill itself is the product of months of negotiations among lawmakers who brought together dozens of separate proposals aimed at tackling the growing affordability crisis facing both renters and prospective homebuyers across the United States.<\/p>

Among its key provisions, the legislation would cut federal red tape, speed up environmental review processes, accelerate construction timelines, and rein in corporate landlords by restricting their ability to buy up single-family homes.<\/p>

Supporters acknowledge the bill isn’t a cure-all. Factors like a shortage of construction workers, climbing insurance premiums, and years of wages failing to keep pace with rising rents and home prices are not fully addressed by the measure.<\/p>

Despite that, the bill has earned widespread backing from across the real estate world, including groups representing homebuilders and apartment owners, along with housing advocacy organizations.<\/p>

“We need more homes built, and legislation that removes construction barriers is exactly what the market needs right now,” said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin. “Homebuyers who were hoping for relief may have to wait even longer, and in a market already starved for inventory, that’s a tough pill to swallow.”<\/p>

Housing affordability has become a major concern for American voters in recent years. The U.S. housing market has been sluggish since 2022, when mortgage rates started rising sharply from the low levels seen during the pandemic. Sales of previously owned homes were essentially unchanged last year, sitting at a 30-year low. While sales picked up in May to their strongest pace since December, they remain near a 4 million annual rate \u2014 well below the historical norm of around 5.2 million \u2014 partly due to persistently high mortgage rates.<\/p>

Years of skyrocketing home prices, particularly in the early part of this decade when ultra-low mortgage rates triggered a buying frenzy, have left many potential buyers on the sidelines. A persistent shortage of homes available for sale \u2014 driven in part by years of below-average construction \u2014 has kept prices elevated even as sales have slowed.<\/p>

Nationally, home prices have jumped 54% since 2020. Last year, the median sale price of an existing single-family home was nearly five times the median household income, according to researchers at Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.<\/p>

Renters haven’t seen much relief either. Although the median U.S. monthly rent has been edging lower for nearly three years, it was still 17.2% above pre-pandemic levels as of May, according to Realtor.com data.<\/p>

A central driver of the affordability problem is a mismatch between supply and demand in many markets. Fewer homes for sale pushes prices higher, even when the market slows. And when mortgage rates drop, buyers compete for the same limited pool of homes, pushing prices up further.<\/p>

The housing bill aims to address supply by encouraging construction of smaller, more affordable starter homes. It would update existing rules to promote the building of manufactured homes \u2014 which are typically less expensive than other newly built homes \u2014 and expand access to government-backed loans to include the construction of accessory dwelling units that homeowners can rent out.<\/p>

The legislation also sets aside new funding to help communities convert abandoned infrastructure into housing and offers guidance for localities seeking to update outdated zoning rules that often stand in the way of larger residential developments.<\/p>

“It won’t make housing more affordable overnight, but in the coming years we will see more construction of town homes, multifamily housing, and ADUs,” said Fairweather, adding that the increased supply “will relieve the pressure on home prices, and make it easier for homebuyers to break into the market.”<\/p>

The bill contains a broad array of additional measures, including an expansion of government rental assistance, more funding for affordable housing construction, and incentives for state and local governments to make it easier to build new homes and apartments \u2014 including federal dollars for communities that exceed the median rate of homebuilding. It would also raise limits on how many public housing units can receive renovation financing and lock in a disaster recovery program to help communities rebuild more quickly after emergencies. New renter protections are included as well.<\/p>

“Families are struggling under the heavy weight of housing costs that have climbed for decades,” said San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, who serves as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. “There’s no time to waste. Without federal action, America’s housing shortfall will continue to grow, falling another 2 million units behind in the next five years.”<\/p>

It’s worth noting that the federal government’s ability to directly control things like home prices or rent levels is limited. Most housing regulations \u2014 including zoning laws \u2014 are set at the state and local level. So even a delay in the bill’s enactment wouldn’t immediately affect local home prices, but it could push back the timeline on new construction projects that depend on the bill’s provisions to move forward.<\/p>

“The sooner this bill becomes law, the sooner builders and homebuyers will benefit from its downstream effects,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com. “Even if the president were to sign this bill immediately, many of the provisions will take time to impact builder planning and projects in the pipeline, so there is going to be a delay before consumers feel the impacts of this legislation either way.”<\/p>

Trump’s refusal to sign the bill on Wednesday may turn out to be only a temporary setback. The House approved the measure 358-32 on Tuesday, and the Senate passed it 85-5 on Monday \u2014 margins large enough to be considered veto-proof majorities. If Trump were to formally veto the bill, both chambers would need to vote again to override him.<\/p>

It may not come to that. House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday that he had spoken with Trump and was optimistic the president would ultimately put his signature on the bill.<\/p>

“The president, when we go through the details of the bill, he’s going to understand that it’s a good product,” Johnson said.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A sweeping housing bill that passed Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support is now in limbo after President Trump refused to sign it into law. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act was designed to lower housing costs and boost home construction across the country. Trump says he won’t put pen to paper until Congress passes a law requiring proof of citizenship to vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":86400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[833],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/news-1782340371401.jpg?fit=1000%2C666&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbtNqq-mtz","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":85905,"url":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/congress-passes-bipartisan-affordable-housing-bill-headed-to-trumps-desk\/","url_meta":{"origin":86401,"position":0},"title":"Congress Passes Bipartisan Affordable Housing Bill, Headed to Trump’s Desk","author":"Admin","date":"June 23, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"A bipartisan housing bill aimed at increasing the availability of affordable homes across the country has cleared both chambers of Congress and is now headed to President Donald Trump to be signed into law. The legislation passed the House by a wide 358-32 margin, just one day after sailing through\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/news-1782260249751.jpg?fit=450%2C300&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":85915,"url":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/congress-passes-sweeping-bipartisan-housing-bill-in-rare-show-of-unity\/","url_meta":{"origin":86401,"position":1},"title":"Congress Passes Sweeping Bipartisan Housing Bill in Rare Show of Unity","author":"Admin","date":"June 23, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The U.S. House approved a wide-ranging bipartisan housing bill on Tuesday by a 358-32 margin, sending it to President Donald Trump for his expected signature. The legislation aims to cut housing costs by reducing regulations, speeding up construction, and limiting corporate landlords from buying single-family homes. It marks one of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/news-1782261093966.jpg?fit=1000%2C666&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/news-1782261093966.jpg?fit=1000%2C666&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/news-1782261093966.jpg?fit=1000%2C666&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/news-1782261093966.jpg?fit=1000%2C666&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":86226,"url":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/house-speaker-says-trump-will-sign-affordable-housing-bill-within-10-days\/","url_meta":{"origin":86401,"position":2},"title":"House Speaker Says Trump Will Sign Affordable Housing Bill Within 10 Days","author":"Admin","date":"June 24, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"House Speaker Mike Johnson announced Wednesday that President Donald Trump is expected to sign an affordable housing bill within the next 10 days. Trump had earlier called off a planned signing of the bipartisan legislation, which aims to speed up the construction and availability of affordable homes, until a separate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/news-1782315142351.jpg?fit=450%2C300&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35345,"url":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/senate-approves-major-housing-bill-in-rare-bipartisan-vote\/","url_meta":{"origin":86401,"position":3},"title":"Senate Approves Major Housing Bill in Rare Bipartisan Vote","author":"Admin","date":"March 12, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly approved comprehensive housing legislation Thursday by an 89-10 margin, targeting America's housing affordability crisis. 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