Bipartisan housing bill automatically becomes law after Trump refuses to sign it

Washington — A landmark housing bill automatically became law at midnight Saturday after President Trump refused to sign it to protest Senate inaction on an election bill known as the SAVE America Act.

The bipartisan bill, known as the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, is the most comprehensive housing legislation in decades. The measure aims to increase the supply of housing and reduce costs, including by preventing institutional investors from purchasing certain single-family homes.

The president was expected to sign the bill during a bill signing ceremony on Capitol Hill last month, shortly after the House and Senate approved it by large bipartisan majorities. But he abruptly canceled signing the bill hours beforehand and threatened not to sign the bill until Congress approved the SAVE America Act. This legislation would impose new restrictions on voting and voter registration.

The president reiterated Friday morning his intention not to sign the housing bill.

“I will not sign the housing bill, which was fully approved by Congress and sent to the White House, as a PROTEST to the failure of the United States Senate to pass the SAVE AMERICA ACT, which has a 97 percent rating among the Republican Party and a very high rating among non-partisan Democrats,” the president said on Truth Social.

Under the Constitution, a bill that has passed both houses of Congress automatically becomes law if the president does not sign or veto it within 10 days, not including Sunday.

Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the bill’s lead supporter in the Senate, harshly criticized the president’s refusal to sign the bill.

“At the stroke of midnight, a massive bipartisan bill aimed at lowering housing costs became law without the president’s signature. Why did President Trump sit on this landmark housing bill for over two weeks? Perhaps because there was nothing in it for him personally: no gold-encrusted ballroom, no Qatari plane, no $2 billion crypto deal. Nothing in the ROAD to the 21st century toward housing, except for ways to make housing more affordable,” she said in a statement. “Donald Trump hasn’t been able to put pen to paper because he’s simply not interested in lowering costs for American families.”

The president’s decision put his Republican allies in Congress in a difficult position, denying them the opportunity to tout their efforts to address concerns about affordability that have remained a priority for Americans. And despite pressure from the president in recent months, Senate Republican leaders have repeatedly said the election bill does not have enough support to pass.

Passage of the housing bill came after months of work and represented a rare moment of bipartisan consensus as the midterm elections approach. But the president called the bill a “yawn,” while making clear he wanted the focus to be on his push to ban mail-in voting, requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote and a photo ID to vote.

Despite the president’s refusal to sign the bill, he also did not veto it, allowing it to automatically become law. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who met with the president several times on the issue late last month, sent the bill to the president on June 29, beginning the 10-day deadline.

That day, when asked what he planned to do about the housing bill, Mr. Trump told reporters he did not know, adding, “I think it’s really insignificant” compared to the SAVE America Act.

A day later, Johnson responded to Mr. Trump’s comments by saying that “the president has a lot on his plate and I think it’s safe to say he hasn’t read every line of this piece of legislation.”

The Louisiana Republican said there are “a lot of things to do and a lot of good things,” and added that he and the president have “talked about it a lot.”

“What he was saying is that compared to ensuring the integrity of elections, which is now represented by the SAVE America Act, nothing is as important,” Johnson said. “That’s not to say there aren’t incredibly important issues, and cost of living and affordability is one of them. It’s a priority.”

Johnson ultimately expressed confidence that the bill would become law, noting that he encouraged the president to sign it with “the biggest black marker you have” while telling him that the results of the legislation “will be very, very good for the American people.”

“So I hope he signs it. If he doesn’t, it’s still the law; we’ll still celebrate it,” Johnson said. “But he tries to make his point and I think he does it very effectively.”

What the Housing Act Does

The new law includes more than 45 provisions, many of which aim to increase affordable housing development by removing regulatory barriers and streamlining environmental reviews. It also launches a pilot program to help local governments convert vacant commercial buildings into affordable housing, unlocks more federal funds for the construction of manufactured homes and eliminates a rule that requires homes to be built on a chassis — a steel frame used to transport them.

Additionally, it creates an innovation fund for communities that increase their housing supply, supports housing opportunities for veterans, and limits purchases of single-family homes by institutional investors.

Limits on institutional investors are intended to reduce competition to benefit homebuyers, supporters say. And applying to existing single-family homes rather than new construction, the law continues to incentivize financial companies to invest in new housing construction.

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