House Republicans cut housing deal

Speaker Mike Johnson and House GOP leaders reached an agreement with President Donald Trump and the White House on Tuesday on a housing affordability bill after days of conflict over whether the House should accept the Senate’s version unchanged. The House is expected to vote Wednesday on the revised package and, if it passes, send it back to the Senate for final approval. (politico.com) The compromise followed a week in which Johnson said the House did not have the votes to pass the Senate bill as written, even as the White House and Senate Republicans pressed for that outcome. The legislation at issue is H.R. 6644, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a broader housing package that the Senate passed on March 12 with a substitute amendment. Congress.gov says the bill revises federal housing programs, including financing, grants and other housing-supply measures, and the Senate version drew from the ROAD to Housing Act of 2025. (politico.com) ### Why did the House and Senate split over the same housing bill? Mike Johnson said on May 15 that House Republicans did not have the votes to pass the Senate bill “as is,” and he said the House would stand by its own product. He made those comments after White House officials and Senate Republicans urged the House to clear the Senate version directly for Trump’s signature. (politico.com) John Thune, the Senate majority leader, said on May 14 that the clearest path was for the House to pass the Senate bill unchanged. Elizabeth Warren and Tim Scott, the Senate Banking Committee’s top Democrat and Republican, also urged the House to move the Senate package without amendments. (congress.gov) ### Which provision caused the biggest fight? The dispute centered on language aimed at limiting large institutional investors in the single-family housing market. Politico reported that the House text narrowed the definition of “single-family home” and removed a Senate provision that would have required homes built by large institutional investors as long-term rentals to be sold within seven years to individual buyers. (politico.com) The White House had initially backed the Senate bill, and Trump had pushed the House to move it quickly. But the final House-Senate compromise kept some restrictions on institutional investors while making the House language closer to the Senate’s version, according to Politico. French Hill said the revised bill “prioritizes American families,” and he said it delivers on Trump’s call to limit institutional investors competing with homebuyers. (politico.com) ### What else changed in the compromise text? The updated House text added back a prevailing-wage requirement for certain new federally funded housing projects, a provision that had been in the Senate bill but removed from an earlier House draft. It also restored the Housing Supply Frameworks Act, which is intended to establish national best practices for zoning and land use. (politico.com) The House version removed the Build Now Act from the package. Earlier House text had also preserved a five-year ban on the Federal Reserve issuing a digital dollar, a provision that had become important to some House conservatives. ### Who lined up behind the revised bill? (politico.com) French Hill, the Republican chair of the House Financial Services Committee, and Maxine Waters, the panel’s top Democrat, supported the new House version. Waters said the House had shown bipartisan action was possible and called on the Senate to work with the chamber “in good faith.” A White House official told Politico that the administration supports the House bill “thanks to the changes that were made.” That marked a shift from the administration’s warning on May 14 that the House-amended bill could contain “serious policy concerns or implementation challenges.” (politico.com) ### What happens next in Congress? (politico.com) The House planned to bring the bill up Wednesday under suspension of the rules, a fast-track procedure that limits debate, bars floor amendments and requires a two-thirds majority of members present and voting. If the House approves the revised package, the amended bill would return to the Senate rather than go directly to Trump’s desk. (politico.com) Congress.gov lists H.R. 6644 as having passed the Senate already with changes, which means the next formal step after House passage would be another Senate vote on the amended measure. Wednesday’s House vote is the immediate milestone, with Johnson, Hill, Waters and Senate leaders all watching whether the compromise can hold across both chambers. (congress.gov) (politico.com 1) (politico.com 2)