Senate passes bipartisan housing package, but House wants more changes

The Senate on Thursday passed bipartisan legislation designed to boost supply and lower costs of housing, but it appears unlikely to pass the House without changes.

The Senate bill, dubbed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, combines several bipartisan bills that would streamline regulatory requirements to make it easier to build new housing, expand home financing options and modernize existing housing programs.

It passed overwhelmingly, in a 89-10 vote.

The House passed its own housing package last month. The Senate updated its version to include some of the other chamber’s proposals to help ease its path to President Trump’s desk.

But the revamp has not done enough to calm House GOP lawmakers who are considering forcing the Senate to form a bicameral conference committee to resolve the remaining policy disputes.

“It is critical we get the details right and mitigate some of the concerns raised by House members with the Senate bill,” House Financial Services Chairman French Hill, Arkansas Republican, said in a statement. “I look forward to working with all parties to achieve a bicameral success that will bring down the cost of housing and benefit the American people.”

For example, House lawmakers are still pushing for provisions from their bill to provide regulatory relief to community banks so they can expand home lending opportunities.

The changes made between the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee’s unanimous approval of the bill last year and the floor debate this month were negotiated with the White House’s involvement. It was designed to merge enough proposals from the House and Senate packages to serve as a final product that could get to the president’s desk.

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“The administration supports the bill as-is,” a White House official told The Washington Times.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who called the package a key piece of “Republicans’ affordability agenda,” told reporters the White House will need to put pressure on House leadership to get it to the president’s desk.

“Could there be a conference? That’s always a possibility,” he said. “But obviously, the quickest way to get this done would be to pick up the Senate bill and pass it.”

Sen. Tim Scott, South Carolina Republican and chair of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee that crafted the package, said the goal is to increase home ownership opportunities, particularly for younger buyers.

“Today the average age of a first-time home buyer is 40 — 40 years old before you ever experience the American dream,” he said. “That age is too old.”

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The Senate added a provision that Mr. Trump requested to codify his executive order banning large Wall Street investment firms from buying up housing supply and taking away opportunities for individual homeownership.

The ban applies to companies with investment control of 350 or more single-family homes.

Democrats were happy to cooperate in drafting the ban.

“In my state, one in four single-family rental homes are owned by private equity and institutional investors,” said Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock. “Wall Street has taken over Main Street, swooping in and taking thousands of homes. It’s driving up prices for renters and for those who want to own their home and pushing the American Dream further away.”

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Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz was the only Democrat to vote against the bill. He said the attempt to crack down on hedge funds buying up single-family homes would also impact developers who build homes to rent out, about 47,000 units a year, because it forces any company with more than 350 single-family rental units to sell in seven years.

“That’s bananas,” Mr. Schatz said, noting the provision would target small businesses and family companies who may not be in a position to sell after seven years. “If there’s a forced federal government sale, most people are going to say I’m out of this particular line of business.”

He said the provision would kill many affordable housing projects because developers who use the low-income housing tax credit build are required to keep the homes in rental housing for 30 years.

To sell, the companies would have to kick out their tenants. The provision sends a message that “owning is good, renting is bad,” and would “demonize people who want to build rental housing for folks,” Mr. Schatz said.

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The National Association of Homebuilders has also expressed alarm about the provision.

“We urge the House to seek a conference and make changes to remove the government mandate to sell rental housing within seven years so that it will not lead to a decrease in new construction,” said Bill Owens, the association’s chairman.

• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.